>^r: 


LIBRARY 

t)K   THE 


University  of  California. 

Received 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 

Founded  by  John  D.  Rockefeller. 


THE 

ORIGIN  OF  RHYTHMICAL  VERSE 

m  LATE  LATIN. 


A  DISSERTATION 

submitted  to  the  Faculties  of  the  Graduate  Schools  of  Arts,  Literature,  and 
Science,  in  candidacy  for  the  degree  of 

Doctor  of  Philosophy 

(Department  of  Latin) 

by 


\  3  R  A  n  y 

UITIVERSITT  . 


CHICAGO,  ILL 

1900. 


S3 

not) 


j/>ijf//0 


PREFACE. 

The  work  upon  the  sixbject  here  presented  grew  out  of  remarks 
made  several  years  ago  by  Professor  F.  F.  Abbott  of  the  University 
of  Chicago,  in  connection  with  the  work  of  his  seminar  in  Colloquial  Latin, 
of  which  I  was  a  member.  He  suggested  that  a  metrical  study  of  the 
Latin  inscriptions  might  throw  some  light  upon  the  problem  of  Latin 
popular  poetry.  I  had  not  proceeded  far,  before  I  found  that  it  would 
be  very  hard  to  make  even  a  profitable  classification  of  epigraphical  verse 
without  extending  the  scope  of  the  investigation.  This  extension  naturally 
brought  with  it  a  change  in  point  of  view  and  purpose ,  and  has  made 
the  Christian  hjanns  rather  than  the  inscriptions  the  centre  of  the  discussion. 

The  work  has  almost  entirely  been  done  under  somewhat  unfavorable 
conditions,  in  the  spare  moments  of  a  busy  instructor.  Some  undesirable 
effects  of  these  conditions  will,  I  am  afraid,  appear  all  too  clearly  in  the 
treatment  of  the  subject.  Nevertheless  I  feel  sure  that  any  real  results 
which  I  may  have  to  offer  are,  to  some  extent  at  least,  also  due  to  the 
method  of  work  made  necessary  by  frequent  interruptions  and  delays.  At 
any  rate  the  work  would  hardly  have  been  possible  without  the  kindness 
of  the  Latin  department  of  the  University  of  Chicago ,  in  allowing  me 
the  free  use  of  their  library,  and  it  might  possibly  have  been  abandoned 
in  its  early  stages,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  encouragement  which  Pro- 
fessor Abbott  gave  it  from  time  to  time  The  last  chapter  and  the 
appendix  were  added  at  Gbttingen,  where  I  had  the  privilege  of  obtaining 
a  more  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  views  of  Professor  W.  Meyer, 
to  whom    this  branch  of  metrical  study  owes  much  of  its  progress. 

It  seems  impossible  to  write  a  metrical  treatise  without  saying  some- 
thing about  the  terminology.  I  have  used  the  terms  "arsis"  and  "thesis" 
as  they  are  explained  in  the  note  on  page  three.  In  the  use  of  the  terms 
"rhythmical",  "resolution",  "elision"  and  others,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  under- 
stood   as    taking    a   position    in  any  controversy  as  to    their  more    special 


83210 


IV 

application  but  have  merely  intended  them  as  names  for  the  facts  and 
phenomena  for  which  they  usually  stand.  That  "rhythmical"  is  not  ne- 
cessarily the  same  as  "accentual"  will  appear  in  the  discussion  of  the 
accentual  theory,  and  needs  to  be  specially  emphasized. 

The  spelling  has  been  made  to  accord  with  that  of  classical  times 
though  many  of  the  hymns  no  doubt  belong  to  a  period  when  this  spelling 
had  changed  in  some  particulars. 

The  object  of  the  review  of  existing  theories  in  the  first  part  of  the 
dissertation  is  not  merely  to  refute  them,  but  quite  as  much  to  gain  some 
positive  results,  which  later  (p.  52)  form  the  starting-point  of  my  own 
explanation. 

TEKRE  HAUTE,  INDIANA.  J.  J.  S. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Introduction. 

rai?e 

STATE  OF  THE  PROBLEM 1 

THE  MATERIAL 2 

Tables  of  metrical  faults  and  of  conflicts  of  accent  and  ictus 

in  the  iambic  dimeter 5 

in  the  trochaic  tetrameter 9 

in  the  sapphic ...  10 

in  the  asclepiadean 10 

THE  ACCENTUAL  THEORY. 

General  form 11 

Huemer's  modification  of  it 11 

The  facts  are  not  all  considered 12 

Contradictions  in  Huemer's  treatment 12 

Examination  of  his  results 12 

Lewis'  views. 

Double  principle  of  construction 15 

Initial  inversions  in  dissyllables 16 

THE  "DEGENERATION"  THEORY. 

Lucian  Miiller's  three  tenets 17 

Relation  of  the  accentual  practice  to  the  neglect  of  quantity    ...  17 

Extent  of  conflict  in  the  early  rhythmical  hymns 18 

Was  the  change  due  to  ignorance  and  neglect  of  quantity?      ...  19 
THE  THEORY  OF  SEMITIC  INFLUENCE. 

The  views  of  W.  Meyer 21 

General  argiiments  against  them 22 

Supposed  Semitic  origin 24 

of  rhyme 24 

of  acrostichs 24 

of  groiips  and  strophes 25 

of  "Silbenzahlung" 25 

Is  the  form  of  Augustine's  Psalmus  the  restilt  of  Semitic  influence?      •      •  26 

of  neglect  of  quantity  and  accentual  pronunciation 29 

ninstration  by  a  similar  case  in  English O" 

Meyer's  more  recent  views.    The  accentual  cadence  at  the  end  of  the  verse  30 


VI 


Trochaic  Popular  Verse  of  the  Classical  Period. 

TWO  KINDS  OF  VERSES 3^3 

Examination  of  class    I 34 

»       »     n 37 

CONCLUSIONS 38 


The  Inscriptions  and  Commodian. 

STRICTER  AND   FREER   TREATMENT   OF   IAMBIC   AND   TROCHAIC 
VERSE. 

in  classical  literature 39 

in  the  inscriptions 89 

in  the  Christian  hymns 40 

CLASSIFICATION  OF  THE  INSCRIPTIONAL  MATERIAL 41 

Analysis  of  the  arses 44 

The  final  syllable 45 

The  accented  syllable 45 

The  non-accentual  syllables 46 

Analysis  of  the  theses 47 

The  final  syllable 47 

The  accented  syllable 47 

The  syllable  preceding  the  accent 47 

Causes  of  the  instability  of  the  syllable  before  the  accent 48 

„        „      „  „  „     „     final  syllable 49 

CONCLUSIONS 51 


The  Transformation  of  Metrical  Forms. 

REVIEW  OF  PREVIOUS  CONCLUSIONS 52 

L    THE  UNDETERMINED  THESIS 52 

This  thesis  gradually  occupied  by  the  unstable  syllables 53 

Table  for  the  iambic  dimeter 54 

„        „      „    trochaic  tetrameter 55 

Accentual  results  of  this  shifting 

in  the  iambic  dimeter 55 

in  the  trochaic  tetrameter 57 

in  the  iambic  trimeter 58 

Comparison  with  metres  having  no  undetermined  theses 58 

XL    THE  TENDENCY  TO  REPRODUCTION  AND  DIVISION 59 

A  characteristic  of  popular  and  unskillful  versification 59 

Seen  clearly  in  the  division  of  the  asclepiadean 60 

Change  of  rhythm  following  the  neglect  of  quantity 

in  the  asclepiadean 61 

in  the  sapphic 62 

SUMMARY  OF  CHAPTERS  I  AND  H  . 62 

III.  THE  LOSS  OF  ELISION 63 

IV.  THE  LOSS  OF  RESOLUTION 64 


vn 


The  Rhythmical  Imitation  of  Quantitative  Metres. 

Page 

State  of  the  language 66 

Crippled  conditiou  of  the  metres 67 

Devices  employed  to  preserve  the  quantitative  character  of  the  verse  ...  67 

Low  esteem  in  which  rhythmical  verse  was  held 68 

Various  types  of  rhythmical,  as  of  metrical  hymns 69 

Various  stages  in  the  neglect  of  quantity 70 

The  initial  impulse  to  rhythmical  composition 71 

Other  instances  of  the  free  imitation  of  metrical  forms 72 

Some  metrical  forms  better  suited  for  this  kind  of  imitation  than  others .     .  73 

Traces  of  the  metrical  origin  in  the  early  rhythmical  compositions  ....  73 
Restrictions  placed   upon  the  development  of  rhythmical  composition   by  the 

church  and  classical  standards 74 

Peculiarities   of  early   rhythmical    verse  which   still  show    the   influence   of 

classical  standards 74 

a.  The  treatment  of  syllables  in  which  a  short  vowel  is  followed  by  a 
mute  or  a  liquid 75 

b.  The  treatment  of  short  syllables  directly  before  and  after  the  accent  76 

Local  peculiarities 77 

Difference  between  formal  and  inforaial  composition 77 

Difference  in  treatment  between   the  iambic  dimeter  and  trochaic  tetrameter 

and  iambic  trimeter 78 


GENERAL   SUMMARY 79 

APPENDIX    I.      THE    TRANSFORMATION    OF    THE    RHETORICAL 
CLAUSULA. 

The  views  of  Havet  and  Meyer 83 

Objections  to  Meyer's  theory  of  the  transformation 84 

Review  of  the  facts 84 

Not  all  the  possible  rhythmical  forms  are  used  by  the  rhythmical  writers  85 
Transformation  of  the  metrical  form  of  the  clausula  similar  to  that  found 

in  metrical  verse 86 

APPENDIX  IL    TABLES  A— F 88 


triTI  ^rERSITTZ 


Introduction. 


The  period  of  change  from  metrical  to  rhythmical  verse  in 
late  Latin  occupies  a  most  important  place  in  the  development 
of  poetic  forms.  It  is  not  only  interesting  in  itself  as  an  epoch 
of  metrical  history,  but  it  is  exceedingly  instructive,  on  the  one 
hand  for  the  earlier  and  classical  Latin ,  because  of  the  light  it 
can  be  made  to  throw  upon  many  peculiar  practices  of  versification, 
and  on  the  other  hand  from  the  fact  that  it  ushered  in  a  new 
form  of  verse  which  is  the  most  important  factor  in  the  development 
of  the  structure  of  modern  poetry.  Notwithstanding  its  great 
importance ,  however ,  the  eifort  that  has  been  made  to  explain 
the  nature  of  the  change  from  metrical  to  rhythmical  verse,  has 
been  comparatively  small,  and  the  results  obtained  have  been  far 
from  convincing. 

The  treatment  of  the  subject  has  indeed,  as  yet,  hardly  gone 
beyond  the  stage  of  controversy.  The  discussion,  for  instance,  of 
the  accentual  or  non-accentual  character  of  such  verses  as  those 
of  Commodian,  Augustine  and  the  unmetrical  hymns  has  too  often 
been  merely  a  convenient  pendant  to  the  treatment  of  the  accen- 
tual or  quantitative  character  of  the  Saturnian  metre  and  the 
question  whether  there  was  a  Latin  popular  poetry  whose  principles 
of  structure  differed  from  those  of  classical  poetry,  and  which  ran 
along  as  a  submerged  current  until  the  triumph  of  Christianity 
brought  it  to  the  surface  again.  One  who  sees  the  quantitative 
principle  in  the  Saturnian  metre,  will  find  abundant  material  in 
the  hymns  and  the  hexameters  of  Commodian  to  indicate  that  they 
are  at  best  a  corrupt  form  of  quantitative  verse  which,  as  Lucian 
Milller  says,  has  come  about  through  "ignorance  or  neglect  of 
quantity."  On  the  other  hand,  if  one  is  convinced  that  the  Sa- 
turnian metre  is  accentual,   he  will  of  course  find  little  difficulty 

1 


_    2    — 

in  believing  that   the   hymns    and  the   hexameters    of  Commodian 
are  accentual  also. 

The  error  most  commonly  made  in  arguments  proceeding  from 
such  sources ,  and  made  in  this  particular  instance  with  perhaps 
more  than  the  usual  nonchalance,  is  the  omission  of  that  part  of 
the  evidence  which  is  inconvenient  to  one's  view  of  the  case.  A 
real  solution  of  the  problem  before  us  can  hardly  be  expected 
unless  it  is  realized  that  it  must  be  attacked  with  a  mind  free 
from  preconceived  theories ,  as  a  problem  by  itself ,  and  that  its 
solution  involves  a  study  of  all,  or  practically  all,  of  the  metrical 
forms  of  the  decline  of  Latin  literature,  including  those  of  the  in- 
scriptions. To  be  sure,  not  all  metrical  forms  employed  at  any 
time  are  of  equal  importance,  and  yet  the  more  widely  a  metre, 
however  uncommon,  differs  from  those  in  common  use,  the  clearer 
is  often  the  light  which  it  throws  upon  the  difficulties  of  solution. 
It  was  with  these  points  in  view  that  the  present  investigation 
was  extended  to  include  all  those  forms  of  verse  which  occur 
with  any  frequency  in  both  the  metrical  and  the  rhythmical 
stage. 

The  most  important  verses  are  naturally  those  of  iambic  and 
trochaic  movement,  since  by  far  the  greater  number  of  the  hymns 
were  written  in  one  or  the  other  of  these  measures.  This  class 
of  verse  was  capable,  as  we  shall  see  later,  of  a  development  which 
made  it  acceptable  in  its  unmetrical  form,  after  other  metres  had 
lost  their  rhythmical  identity  or  had  fallen  into  hopeless  confusion. 
Of  the  two  characteristics  which  distinguish  rhythmical  from  met- 
rical poetry  —  the  disregard  of  quantity  and  the  more  or  less 
complete  coincidence  of  accent  and  ictus  —  the  occurrence  of  the 
latter  is  practically  confined  to  iambic  and  trochaic  verse. 

Again,  the  different  classes  of  material  involved  in  the  problem 
do  not  contribute  equally  to  its  solution.  While  the  late  pagan 
literature  and  the  inscriptions  yield  abundant  and  valuable  evi- 
dence, it  is  above  all  the  hymns  to  which  we  must  look  as  the 
scene  of  the  change  itself.  Accordingly  the  tables  which  are  given 
below  and  which  will  be  referred  to  frequently,  are  for  the  most 
part  confined  to  this  field.  They  contain  specimens  of  the  iambic 
dimeter,  trochaic  tetrameter  catalectic,  sapphic  and  asclepiadean. 
But  other  metres,  as  well  as  other  classes  of  material,  will  be 
referred  to  as  occasion  arises  in  the  discussion  which  follows. 

For  each  of  the  metres  included  in  the  tables ,  all  grades  of 
development  from  the  strictly  metrical  to  the  undoubtedly  rhyth- 
mical form   are   presented.       The   classification    exhibits    the   two 


—    3    — 

phases  of   the  change,  namely   the  gradual  disregard   of  quantity 
and  the  gradual  extension,  in  some  cases,  of  the  accentual  principle. 


A  word  must  be  said  about  the  composition  of  the  tables.  The  iam- 
bic dimeter  is,  for  obvious  reasons,  most  extensively  represented.  Tables 
A  1,  2,  3  and  4  of  this  metre  contain  metrical  specimens  who.se  date  is 
more  or  less  definitely  known ,  arranged  in  groups  according  to  tlicir  age ; 
tables;  B  1  and  2  contain  metrical  hymns  whose  date  is  not  known  or 
merely  known  to  be  early,  arranged  according  to  their  accentual  character; 
table  C  contains  early  metrical  hymns  with  unmetrical  theses  ^) ;  tables  D  1 
and  2  contain  early  and  not  yet  fully  developed  rhythmical  hymns,  also 
arranged  according  to  their  accentual  character;  table  E  contains  late  and 
fully  developed  rhythmical  liymns  of  the  1 0  th  to  the  1 2  th  centuries.  In  the 
tables  of  the  trochaic  tetrameter,  the  metrical  specimens  from  Seneca  to 
Fortunatus  are  arranged  chronologically,  and  all  the  other  specimens  of 
this  metre,  as  well  as  those  of  the  sapphic  and  asclepiadean,  are  arranged 
according  to  stages  of  development. 

These  tables,  as  well  as  those  presented  elsewhere,  have  been  compiled 
with  considerable  care  and  tested  in  various  ways  as  to  their  accuracy. 
Still  it  is  inevitable  that  they  should  contain  mistakes,  and  for  these  the 
indulgence  of  the  reader  must  be  asked.  Fortunately  the  arguments  depend 
altogether  on  the  broad,  general  import  of  the  figm'es,  and  upon  the  varia- 
tion of  one  group  from  another ,  rather  than  upon  individual  specimens  of 
verse.  Hence  the  influence  upon  the  final  re.sult  of  occasional  mistakes 
in  counting  would  m  any  case  be  exceedingly  slight. 

In  deciding  between  different  versions  of  the  same  hymn ,  the  writer 
of  the  dissertation  has  generally  been  content,  in  the  absence  of  a  critical 
edition,  with  indicating  the  source  from  which  he  took  the  version  used. 
Wlien  a  choice  was  possible,  the  older  form  of  the  hymn  and  the  older 
manuscript  were  preferred.  The  "revised"  forms  of  early  hymns  found  in 
the  Breviary  were  of  course  not  considered.  When  a  variant  reading 
seriously  afi'ected  the  question  at  issue,  additional  care  was  taken  to  adopt 
that  reading  which  seemed ,  under  the  circumstances ,  most  natural.  In  a 
few  extreme  cases  of  uncertainty,  the  word  or  syllable  in  question  was 
left  out  of  the  count  entirely.  If  it  might  seem  that  too  little  attention 
was  paid  to  these  matters,  two  facts  may  be  urged  in  excuse,  1.  the  text 
of  the  hymns  is  still  a  wilderness,  2.  the  influence  of  individual  cases 
upon  the  final  result  is,  for  the  reasons  aheady  mentioned,  very  small. 

The  doxologies  appended  to  many  hymns  have  been  omitted  ,  since 
they  were  very  seldom  written  by  the  author  of  the  hymn  itself. 

1)  Throughout  this  dissertation ,  the  term  arsis  is  applied  to  the  syllables 
under  the  ictus,  the  term  thesis  to  those  not  under  the  ictus. 

1* 


-    4    -^ 

Proper  names  from  foreign  languages  whose  quantity  can  not  be  deter- 
mined by  rules  of  the  Latin  language,  were  omitted  in  the  count. 

In  the  hymns  of  the  transition  period  two  ways  of  scanning  a  verse 
are  sometimes  possible.  In  such  instances  the  preference  was  uniformly 
given  to  the  way  which  resulted  in  the  fewest  metrical  faults,  unless  it 
was  evident  from  other  scansions  of  the  hymn  or  of  the  period,  that  the 
faulty  scansion  was  probable  in  the  case  under  consideration. 

In  deciding  which  hymns  might  belong  to  a  certain  author,  the  prac- 
tice has  been  to  admit  only  those  which  an  acceptable  weight  of  evidence 
seemed  to  attribute  to  him.  Absolute  certainty  is  of  course  in  many  cases 
unattainable ,  nor  is  it  for  the  present  purpose  of  the  utmost  importance. 
Still  the  writer  has  preferred  to  be  conservative  rather  than  liberal  in  this 
respect.  The  verses  admitted  into  the  tables  under  the  names  of  the  va- 
rious authors,  so  far  as  not  indicated  in  the  tables  themselves,  are  as  follows: 
Iambic  Dimeter. 

Catalecta  (Virgil)  Baehreus  P.  L.  M. 
Horace  —  Epodes  I— X,  XIV,  XV. 
Second  century  fragments  —  Baehrens  Frag.  Poet.  Lat. 
Ausonius  —  all  in  Peiper's  edition. 

Prudentius  —  Cath.  I,  II;  Peristepli.   II,   1  —  188   (Dressel). 
Martianus  Capella  —  II,   121;  VI,  704;  IX,  902  (Eyssenhardt). 
Ambrosius  —  the  six  hymns  given  to  him  by  Kayser  (Beitr.   z.  Erkl. 
d.  alt.  Kirchenhymneu)  Deus  creator.  Splendor  paternae,  Veni   re- 
demptor,  Aeterne  rerum,  Aeterna  Christi   (from  March's  ed.),  lam 
surgit  hora  tertia  (D.  I,    18). 
Sedulius  —  A  solis  ortus  cardine  (Huemer). 
Ennodius   —   Deus  perenne,  Votis  Cypriaui,   lam  Christus,  Nigrante 

tectam,   Caelo  ferunt  Ambrosium  (Hartel). 
Boethius  —  De  consol.  II,  7  ;  III,  8 ;  IV,   1   (Peiper). 
Fortunatus  —  Vexilla  regis,  Agnoscat  omne  (Leo). 
Bede  —    Hymnum    canentes,    Salve    tropaeum,    Hymnum    canamus 

(March),  Primo  dies  caeli  (Mone  I,   1). 
Attributed  to  Gregory  —  Wackemagel,    d.  deutsche  Kirchenlied  I, 

nos.   89,  90,   91,  92,  94,   96,  97,  99,   100,   102,   105. 
Petrus  Damiani  —  Paschalis  festi  (D  I,  223)  Magna  loannis  (DI  225), 
Paule  doctor  (D  I,  225),  Clarisonis  concentibus  (M  III,   521),  de 
S.  Maria  (M  III,  390). 
Anselm  of  Canterbury  —  Mone  III,   1. 
Gallus  et  Vulpes  —  Grimm  -  Schmeller ,    Ged.  d.   10.  u.   11.  Jahrh. 

p.  345. 
Sacerdos  et  Lupus  —  Grimm-Schmeller,  Ged.  d.   10.  u.   11.  Jahrh. 
p.  340. 


-     B    - 

Bernhard  of  Clairvaux  —  Dan.  I,  227. 

Bonaventura  —  lu  pa.ssioiic,  Ilorae  dc  passionc,  Dc  dolore  Mariae 

(]\Ione  &  Wack). 
Thomas  Aquinas  —   Verbum  supernura  (Wack.  &  Dan.). 
Metrical  hymns    of  the    Carolingian    period  —  all    those    in  Poetae 
Lat.  medii   aevi  I — III  (Diimmler  and  Traube). 
T  r  0  c  li  a  i  c  T  e  t  r  a  m  e  t  e  r. 

Seneca    —    Medea    740—51;    Phaedr     1201  —  12;    Oed.    223  —  32 

(Leo). 
Florus  —  Baehrens  P.  L.  M.  IV,   346. 
Terentiauus  Maurus  —  Keil,  G    L.  11.   1300—1456. 
Pervigilium  Veneris  —  Riese,  Anth.  Lat. 
Tiberianus  —  Baehrens  P.   L.   M.   Ill,   264. 
Prudentiiis    —    Cath.   IX ;  Peristeph.  I  (Dressel). 
Dracontius  —  Baehrens   P.  L.  M.  V,    128. 

Ennodius   —  Grammat.   I,   4;   I,    7;   II,    107;  It,    123   (Harlel). 
Fortunatus  —   Pange  lingua   (Leo). 
Abbreviations  —  W   =  AVackernagel,  d.   Deutsche  Kirchenlied,  vol.  I. 
M   =^  Mone,  Lat.  Hymnen  d.  Mittelalters,  3  vols. 
D  =  Daniel,  Thesaurus  Hymnologicus,  5   vols. 
March   =  March,  Latin  Hymns. 


Iambic  Dimeter. 

A.    Metrical  —  date 
certain. 
A  1. 

Catalecta  (Virgil)      .... 

Horace 

Martial 

Second  Century  P'ragmeuts  . 
A  2. 

Ausonius 

Ambrosias 

Prudeiitius 

Martiauus  Capclla  .... 
A  3. 

Seduliiis 

Ter  hora  triua  volvitur  D  I,  41 

lamsextasensimsoIviturDI,  40 

Hie  est  dies  verus  dei  D  I,  49 

Ennodius 

Boethius 

Fortunatus 

Bade 


20 

203 

31 

38 


398 
188 
40U 

28 


92 


86 

32 

IGO 

39 

124 

225 


Metrical 

Fault.s. 

1     Conflicts  of  Accen 

1                       cV    ictus. 

u 

1 
1 

2 

1 

7 
2 

2 

2 

2 

u 

1 

2 

u 

^ 

u 

2 

59 

2 

5 

121 
74 

109 
14 

45 

6 

3 

18 
17 

12 
1 

7 

12 
84 
12 
11 

77 
35 
92 

4 

12 
90 
14 
13 

131 
50 

95 

9 

u 

13 

1 

4 

4 

1 
1 

2 

1 

9 

9 

49 

11 

1 

8 

7 

13 
12 
11 

14 
29 
12 

2 

1 

1 

1 

30 

12 

5 

9 

6 

1 

2 

96 

39 

7 

19 

A  4. 

Fratres  alacri  (Paul.  Diacon)  I,  41 
0  Petre  petra  ecclesiae  I,  136    .     . 
Venit  deus  factus  homo  II,  248  .     . 
Christus  redemptor  plebium  II,  248 
Laudem    beati  (Wal.  Strabo)  II,  296 
Ad  te  polorum  (Florus  Lugd.)  II,  537 
Adest  dies  verus   dei  II,  249  .     .     . 
Ventosa  cum  desaeviat  (Sedul.  Scot.)  Ill,  1 62 
Amande  praesul  optime  III,  680 .     .     .     . 


B.    Metrical  —  date  uncertain. 

B  1. 

Attributed  to  Gregory    .... 
Apostoloriim  supparem  D  I,  103 
Apostolorum  passio  D  I,  101  .     . 
Illuminans  altissimus  D  I,  19.     . 
Aeterne  rex  altissime  D  I,  196   . 
Primatis  aulae  caelicae  M  III,  503 
Stephano  coronae  martyrum  M  III,  504 
Bellator  armis  iuclitus  M  III,  429 
Martine  confessor  dei  M  III,  430 
Hymnum  sacra  novum  die  M  fll,  475 
Victor,  Nabor,  Felix  pii  M  111,551 
Amore  Christi  nobilis  Mill,  110 
Festum  beati  martyris  M  III,  139 
Festum  beati  martyris  M  III,  139 
Aeternus  orbis  conditor  MI,  31 
Christi  caterva  clamitat  M  I,  45 
Inluxit  orbi  iam  dies  M  I,  77 .     . 
Veni  creator  spiritus  M  I,  241    . 
Caeli  deus  sanctissime  M  I,  378 
Plasmator  hominis,  deus  M  I,  380 
Verbum  supernum  prodiens  M  I,  48 
lesus  refulsit  omnium  M  I,  78     . 
Lucis  creator  optime  M  I,  82 
Chorus  novae  lerusalem  M  I,  219 
Magnae  deus  potentiae  W  I,  56  . 
Agnoscat    omne  saeculum  W  I,  60 
In  matutinis  surgimus  D  I,  3 .     . 
Grates  tibi  lesu  novas  D  I,  47    . 
Nunc  sancte  nobis  spiritus  D  I,  50 
Rector  potens,  verax  Deus  D  I,  51 
Rerum  deus  tenax  vigor  D  I,  52 
Aeterna  caeli   gloria  D  I,  55  .     . 
Aurora  iam  spargit  polum  D  I,  56 
Agnis  beatae  virginis  D  I,  94  .     . 
B  2. 

Diem  sacrati  hominis  M  III,  97  . 
Auni  recurso  tempore  M  III,  155 
Vox  clara  ecce  intonat  W  I,  51 
Fortem  fidelem  militem  W  I,  68 . 
Unam  duorum  gloriam  W  1,  58  . 
Jam  meta  noctis  transiit  D  I,  3  . 
Decus  sacrati  nominis  D  I,  8 .  . 
Consors  paterni  luminis  D  I,  27 


si 

1 

Metrical  Faults. 

Conflicts  of  Accent 
&  Ictus. 

3  "" 

•    o 

u 

— 

u 

— 

u 

— 

u 

u^ 

u 

— 

^J 

— 

u 

— 

u 

u 

64 

1 

3 

2 

28 

13 

13 

16 

28 

1 

1 

7 

5 

3 

5 

20 

1 

11 

4 

2 

3 

IG 

7 

1 

48 

25 

14 

60 

82 

3 

3 

5 

2^ 

1 

1 

12 

8 

9 

10 

36 

1 

17 

6 

2 

44 

1 

18 

5 

1 

2 

244 

2 

2 

1 

2 

87 

32 

5 

10 

32 

1 

11 

5 

8 

9 

32 

2 

15 

2 

9 

18 

32 

8 

4 

U 

12 

28 

2 

12 

6 

2 

2 

24 

2 

8 

3 

3 

3 

20 

9 

1 

1 

2 

32 

2 

1 

8 

1 

1 

3 

24 

9 

4 

1 

2 

20 

2 

5 

2 

10 

3 

1 

1 

32 

1 

10 

5 

6 

9 

27 

1 

10 

2 

8 

7 

28 

16 

3 

1 

2 

32 

19 

3 

1 

3 

126 

3 

1 

46 

18 

14 

17 

32 

2 

11 

3 

4 

5 

32 

1 

9 

3 

2 

5 

24 

1 

1 

5 

1 

1 

2 

u. 

1 

1 

6 

3 

2 

2 

12 

1 

2 

4 

1 

2 

3 

16 

3 

1 

4 

1 

1 

2 

32 

18 

6 

4 

7 

16 

1 

7 

3 

1 

1 

20 

9 

5 

1 

1 

16 

1 

4 

4 

1 

2 

32 

2 

0 

10 

4 

1 

4 

15 

1 

4 

1 

1 

o 

2 

1 

2 

32 

1 

15 

4 

7 

9 

e 

2 

1 

1 

1 

8 

3 

1 

2 

2 

e 

2 

1 

2 

2 

20 

1 

1 

5 

2 

2 

12 

4 

1 

2 

2 

32 

1 

12 

2 

14 

14 

20 

2 

1 

5 

2 

1 

24 

6 

1 

1 

16 

2 

5 

1 

4 

1 

1 

32 

13 

4 

1 

28 

12 

1 

1 

12 

2 

2 

1 

1 

20 

1 

5 

2 

1 

12 

4 

1 

Ill  Trinitatis  uuitas  D  I,  35    .     . 
Cibis  resuniptis  cougriiis  D.  I  72 
Tcruis  ter  horis  imraerus  D  I,  73 
lesii  coroua  celsior  D  I,   110  .     . 
Til  Christe,  nostrum  gaiulium  M  I,  229 
Te,  liicis  auctor,  persoiiant  M  I,  185 
Beat  a  nobis  gaudia  M  I,  241  .     . 
Ad  Katherinae  nuptias  M  III,  354 
Votiva  cunctis  orbita  M  III,  415 
In  laude  regis  omnium  M  HI,  240 
Rex  gloriose  martyrum  M  III,   143 
Fit   porta    Christi    pervia  W  I,  47 
0  lux  beata,  triuitas  W  I,  52     . 
lesu  quadragenariae  W  I,  53  .     . 
lam  lucis  orto  sidere  W  I,  56     . 
lesu,  salvator  saeculi  W  I,  83 
Quern  terra,  pontiis,  aethera  W  I,  63 
Somno  refectis  artubus  D  I,  26  . 
Summae  Deus   clemeutiae  D  I,  84 
Te  lucis  ante  terminum  D  I,  52  . 
Rerum  creator  optime  D  I,  53    . 
Nox  atra   rerum  contegit  D  I,  54 
Dei  fide,  qua  vivimus  D  I,  71 
lam  cursus  horae  sextae  D  I,  71 
Convexa  solis  orbita  D  I,  72  .     . 
Deus  tuorum  militum  D  I,  109    . 
lesu  corona  virgiuum  D  I,  112    . 

C    Unniotrical  Theses. 

Deus  qui  certis  legibus  D  I,  42   . 
Aeteruae  lucis  couditor  D  I,  39  . 
Fulgentis   auctor  aetheris  D  I,  43 
Lucis  largitor  splendide  D  I,  1  . 
Certum  tenentes  ordinem  D  I,  45 
Dicamus  laudes  domino  D  I,  45 
Perfectum  triuum  nuraerum  D  I,  45 
Tempus  noctis  surgentibus  D  I,  67  . 
lam  Christus  astra  ascenderat  D  I,  64 
Ignis  creator  igneus.  Autipb.  Bencbor. 

D.    Rhythiuical- undeveloped. 

D  1. 

Bis  teruas  boras  explicans  D  I,  23 
Rex  aeterue  domiue  D  I,  85 ;    IV,  20 
Optatus  votis  omnium  M  I,  232  . 
lam  Christe,  sol  iustitiae,  M  I,  91 
Ad  cenam  agni  providi  M  I,  217 
Regi  polorum  debitos  M  III,  266 
Rex  Christe,  Martini  decus  Mill,  431 
Sacri  triumphale  tui  M  III,  449  . 
Adest  dies  sanctissima  M  III,  459 
A  solis  ortus  cardine  W  I,  47    . 
Deus,  qui  caeli  lumen  es  W  I,  78 
Deus  pater  ingenite  D  I,  2     .    . 
Mediae  noctis  tempus  est  D  I,  42 
Deus  aeterni  luminis  D  I,  68  .    . 


2  '^ 

Metrical  Faults 

Conflicts  of  Accent 
t^  Ictus. 

a>  a> 

<^ 

— 

w 

— 

\j 

— 

u 

u 

u 

— 

u 

— 

M 

— 

u 

u 

20 

5 

1 

1 

12 

8 

3 

2 

12 

2 

6 

1 

1 

3'2 

2 

8 

1 

1 

12 

4 

1 

24 

7 

1 

24 

2 

1'^ 

2 

24 

1 

1 

6 

3 

16 

1 

8 

1 

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1 

3 

1 

2 

8 

1 

\1 

2 

1 

1 

12 

1 

1 

4 

3 

J^ 

20 

1 

3 

1 

4 

1 

10 

6 

3 

16 

3 

1 

1 

1 

7 

2 

32 

1 

12 

1 

k; 

1 

6 

1 

IG 

1 

7 

2 

8 

1 

2 

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1 

6 

1 

16 

1 

2 

1 

1 

4 

2 

2U 

1 

1 

7 

1 

16 

7 

32 

1 

1 

1 

9 

1 

16 

4 

20 

10 

12 

3 

24 

3 

17 

1 

12 

5 

20 

1 

7 

1 

11 

4 

1 

2 

3i 

2 

17 

1 

1 

10 

3 

1 

12 

I 

7 

1 

1 

5 

12 

1 

9 

1 

6 

12 

7 

1 

1 

8 

2 

IG 

6 

1 

2 

7 

3 

1 

2 

32 

7 

9 

1 

2 

2 

32 

1 

22 

1 

16 

1 

2 

5 

32 

6 

15 

5 

8 

2 

6 

2 

8 

8 

64 

9 

37 

8 

15 

3 

17 

3 

2 

3 

32 

4 

16 

2 

4 

2 

9 

1 

3 

7 

20 

1 

2 

7 

5 

3 

2 

24 

3 

12 

4 

5 

5 

5 

3 

32 

5 

8 

7 

18 

5 

2 

3(1 

1 

1 

4 

9 

12 

9 

7 

32 

6 

11 

3 

2 

19 

4 

8 

20 

6 

5 

5 

2 

2 

56 

7 

12 

4 

11 

19 

5 

2 

40 

1 

18 

5 

2 

16 

3 

5 

20 

9 

2 

3 

6 

1 

3 

3 

52 

7 

36 

8 

10 

3 

22 

10 

2 

8 

24 

4 

9 

3 

2 

5 

9 

3 

10 

12 

—     8     — 


Diei  luce  reddita  D  I,  68    .     .     . 
Deus  qui  claro  lumine  D  I,  73    . 
Christe  redemptor  gentium  D  I,  78 
Mysterium  ecclesiae  D  I,  79    .     . 
Stephano  primo  martyri  D  I,  90 
Post  matutinas  laudes  D  I,  44 
D  2. 
Christe  qui  lux  es  et  dies  M  I,  92 
Aurora  lucis  rutilat  W  I,  80  .     . 
Nunc  tibi,  virgo  virginum  W  I,  82 
Magni  palmam  certaminis  D  I,  102 
0  rex,  0  rector  regminis  M  III,  181 
Conditor  alme  siderum  M  I,  49  .     . 
Mysteriorum  siguifer  M  I,  446    .     . 
lesu  nostra  redemptio  W  I,  55   .     . 
Hymnum  dicamus  domino  W  I,  53  . 
Magno  salutis  gaudio  W  I,  74     .     . 
lam  ter  quaternis  trahitur  W  I,  82 
lam  lucis  splendor  rutilat  D  I,  69   . 
Meridie  orandum  est  D  I,  72 .     .     . 


E.    Bliytliiuical  - 

Petrus  Damiani  .  . 
Anselm  of  Canterbury 
Gallus  et  Vulpes  .  . 
Sacerdos  et  Lupus 
Bernhard  of  Clairvaux 
Bonaventura  .... 
Thomas  Aquinas    .     . 


developed. 


Metrical  Faults. 


Conflicts  of  Accent 

&  Ictus. 


120 
232 

■28& 

8U 

l<)v 

150 

24 


13 
9 

8 
15 

8 
5 

15 

25 

8 

12 

8 
12 
14 
19 

7 
4 


68 
12) 
158 

53 
134 

86 

15 


42 
69 
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33 
64 
65 


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Sapphic. 

A.   Metrical. 

W.  p.  86  Paulus  Diac. 
„  „  90  Attributed  to 
Raban.  Maur.  .     .     . 

W.  p.  92  &  93  Attri- 
buted to  Raban.  Maui 

W.  p.  75  Gregory 

DI.  no.  CCLXXI 
„      „     CCLXXVII 
„       „     OOLXA. 

MIL  p.  62      .     . 

D  I.  no.  CCLXXXII 

y,  „  CLXIII 

„      „     CXXV.. 

„  p.  107  .  .  . 
W.  uo.  133  .  . 
D  I.  p.  238      .     . 

B.    Bliythniical. 

W.  p.  149  .  .  .  , 
„  „  131  ...  , 
„  „  169.  .  .  , 
DI.  no.  CCCCLXIII 
M  III.  p.  199  .  .  , 
DI.  no.  CLV  .     .     , 


Asclepiadean. 

A.    Metrical. 

Ilorace.  0, 1,  1  .  . 
„  „  III,  30  . 
„         „  IV,  8  .     . 

DI,  131 

„     108 

DIV,  63     .     .     .     . 

DI,  217 

„     203      .... 


B.  Transitional. 

DI,  201 

,,186 

Mill,  531 


C    Rhythmical. 

MI,  175 

DI,  252 

M  III,  380 

D  I,  323 

DIV,  96 

„   278 

.      287 

„   338 


24 

104 

21 


Metrical  Faults 

• 

Conflicts 

>j 

1 

1 

\j 

\j 

1 

u 

u 

12 
9 

39 
15 

29 
10 

w 

u 

2 

1 

1 

1 

1 

4 
1 

3 

1 
6 

7 

27 

6 

12 

14 

20 

2 

10 

11 

1 

2 

1 

2 

1 

3 

8 

24 
21 

19 
13 

4 

1 

2 

23 

15 

1 

2 
1 
1 

3 
2 
5 

4 
4 

1 
2 

2 

5 

1 

8 
5 
9 

27 
30 
34 

16 
24 
23 

1 

1 

2 

1 
1 

2 

5 

C 

15 

18 

14 
16 

1 

2 

7 

11 

5 

2 

10 

3 

7 

16 

2 

4 

36 

20 

1 

16 

20 

8 

11 

15 

38 

36 

22 

41 

13 

18 

62 

37 

20 

1 

2 

2 

4 

8 

5 

10 

4 

5 

7 

3 

5 

12 

10 

2 

9 

5 

5 

4 

10 

9 

3 

8 

3 

4 

13 

6 

5 

1 

5 

5 

2 

4 

8 

9 

5 

7 

1 

15 

10 

1 

12 

44 

23 

9 

23 

47 

23 

28 

19 

4 

27 

98 

10 

15 

1 

Metrical 

F 

Aults. 

Confl 

icts 

of 

Accent 

& 

Ictus. 

1 

w 

u 

1 

u 

u 

u 

u 

16 

6 

14 

10 

2 
9 

29 
8 

23 

29 
7 

14 

6 

6 

6 

11 

7 
2 

5 

2 
4 
6 

D 

5 

4 

2 
4 
2 

11 

8 

8 
9 
8 
6 

1 

4 

9 

16 

2 

1 

1 

1 

4 

1 

1 

11 

IS 

1 

2 

1 

5 

7 

1 

3 

2 

18 

24 

1 

1 

3 

5 

22 

8 

1 

28 

2 

5 

14 

3 

1 

67 

102 

2 

12 

11 

4 

6 

15 

1 

7 

3 

14 

IB 

4 

13 

21 

6 

2 

4 

7 

8 

2 

2 

7 

12 

7 

7 

15 

1 

4 

3 

5 

9 

4 

5 

12 

15 

7 

8 

21 

6 

1 

2 

9 

14 

1 

10 

16 

15 

7 

1 

6 

19 

2 

9 

5 

3 

9 

3 

2 

17 

14 

8 

8 

20 

1 

5 

9 

5 

2 

7 
3 

15 
10 

7 

3 

1 

6 
14 

11 
9 

2 
4 

6 

9 

18 
15 

3 

5 

1 

2 

2 

10 

2 

1 

7 

9 

1 

12 

15 

3 

3 

7 

7 

13 

6 

3 

17 

21 

11 

8 

24 

5 

—  11  — 


The  Accentual  Theory. 

The  broad  and  general  form  of  the  "accentual  theory"  is  that 
along  with  the  sermo  plebeius  went  an  accentual  popular  poet- 
ry, traces  of  whose  influence  are  seen  in  the  prominence  of  the 
accent  in  the  verse  of  the  comic  poets,  and  pure  specimens  of 
which  are  found  in  the  trochaic  soldiers'  songs,  lampoons  &c.  pre- 
served by  Suetonius  and  a  few  other  writers.  This  popular  poet- 
ry, it  is  said,  lived  on  among  the  common  people,  though  rarely 
represented  in  writing,  all  through  the  classical  period ;  and  when 
Christianity,  which  first  gained  its  hold  among  the  lower  classes, 
became  supreme,  the  popular  method  of  constructing  verse  also 
gained  the  supremacy  through  the  hymns,  which  according  to  this 
theory  exhibit  practically  the  popular  poetic  form  turned  to 
new  uses. 

To  such  a  view  several  unanswerable  objections  can  easily 
be  made.  If  the  Christian  hymns  grew  up  as  a  popular  accentual 
form  of  poetry  while  Christianity  still  abode  with  the  lowly,  why 
is  it  that  Ambrosius  and  most  of  the  other  early  hymnists  wrote 
only  quantitative  hymns?  Further,  as  is  seen  from  the  tables  just 
presented,  there  is  a  large  body  of  hymns  (Iambic  Dimeter  C  and 
D,  Trochaic  Tetrameter  B  and  C),  which  are  neither  wholly  quan- 
titative nor  wholly  rhythmical ,  but  evidently  represent  a  transi- 
tional stage  and  plainly  suggest  a  gradual  development  from  the 
quantitative  to  the  rhythmical  form. 

Huemer's  Theory,  —  Considerations  like  these  have  led 
to  the  modified  accentual  theory  of  Huemer  (Untersuchungen  liber 
d.  altesten  lat.-christl.  Rhythmen).  While  still  holding  to  the 
belief  in  the  existence  of  a  popular  poetry  which  was  constructed 
according  to  accent  and  not  according  to  quantity,  along  with  the 
opinion  that  the  Saturnian  metre  is  accentual,  he  admits  that  the 
Christian  hymns  were,  to  start  with,  quantitative,  but  maintains 
that,  as  a  result  of  their  use  in  the  church,  they  gradually  made 
concessions  to  the  popular  manner ,  in  consequence  of  which  the 
various  stages  of  transition  just  mentioned  were  brought  about  — 
"dass  die  lateinische  Hymnendichtung  von  Anfang  an  zwar  nicht 
accentuierend,  sondern  quantitierend  gewesen  sei ,  dass  sie  aber 
die  verschiedensten  Concessionen  an  die  Rhythmik  in  Folge  ihrer 
Bestimmung  als  Liederdichtung  fiir  den  Grebrauch  in  der  Kirche 
gemacht  habe  und  allmahlich  dieser  accentuierenden  Richtung  ver- 


-     12    - 

fallen  sei"  (Untersucliungen ,  p,  5.).  This  modification  makes  the 
theory  appear  in  general  to  conform  to  the  outward  facts ,  and 
we  shall  accordingly  be  obliged  to  examine  it  more  in  detail  in 
order  to  test  its  adequacy. 

The  reader  of  the  "Untersuchungen"  just  mentioned  is  struck 
by  two  noteworthy  facts.  In  the  first  place,  Huemer  ignores  the 
hymns  written  in  the  sapphic  and  asclepiadean  metres,  and  dis- 
misses the  hexameter  of  Commodian  without  giving  any  reason 
for  doing  so  (p.  9.).  Now  the  hexameter  and  the  sapphic  do  not  at 
any  time  within  the  period  of  transition  show  a  tendency  toward 
greater  harmony  of  accent  and  ictus.  A  glance  at  the  list  of 
sapphic  hymns  in  the  tables  just  referred  to  will  convince  us  that 
the  proportion  of  conflicts  between  accent  and  ictus  remains  much 
the  same  in  all  classes  of  these  hymns,  both  metrical  and  rhythmical. 
As  for  the  hexameters  of  Commodian  and  other  rhythmical  specimens 
of  this  measure,  it  is  clear  from  the  investigation  of  W.  Meyer 
(Anfang  u.  Ursprung  d.  lat.  u.  griech.  rhyth.  Dichtung,  p.  300  ff.), 
that  they  are  no  more  accentual  than  quantitative  hexameters  are. 
The  asclepiadean  attained  harmony  only  in  its  second  half  in  the 
later  metrical  and  the  rhythmical  specimens.  It  is  not  hard  to 
see  that  if  all  these  metres  had  been  considered  by  Huemer,  they 
would  have  been,  to  speak  moderately,  very  inconvenient  to  his 
theory.  They  show  the  opposite  of  what  he  believes ,  and  so  he 
confines  himself  to  iambic  and  trochaic  verses. 

The  other  thing  that  strikes  the  reader  in  the  "Untersuchungen," 
is  the  change  from  the  confident  spirit  with  which  the  author  her- 
alds his  theory  in  the  first  few  pages  to  the  rather  colorless 
and  non-committal  way  in  which  the  results  of  the  investigation 
are  summed  up  (pp.  59 — 61). 

On  pages  5  and  18  it  is  stated  that  the  hymns  were  origi- 
nally metrical,  but  gradually  made  concessions  to  the  popular 
pronunciation  until  they  fell  completely  under  the  domination  of 
the  word-accent.  On  pages  20  and  59  the  change  is  said  to  be 
due  to  the  increasing  strength  of  the  verse  -  ictus ,  which  caused 
even  metrical  poets  to  make  concessions  to  it  to  the  extent  of 
avoiding  conflict  between  it  and  word -accent  at  certain  places  in 
the  verse,  and  of  admitting  longs  in  place  of  shorts  in  the  thesis. 
In  the  rhythmical  poetry  then,  the  verse-ictus  became  so  powerful, 
according  to  Huemer,  that  short  syllables  were  put  in  place  of 
former  longs  in  the  arsis,,  and  thus,  as  it  were,  lengthened  (p.  20). 

Huemer's  investigation  had  shown  him,  no  doubt,  that  the 
theory  of  accentual  influence  was  in  itself  insufficient,  since,  even 


-la- 
in the  metres  examined  by  him,  the  number  of  conflicts  between 
accent  and  ictus  did  not  materially  decrease  anywhere  except  in 
the  trochaic  tetrameter,  the  iambic  verses  continuing  to  have  a 
considerable  proportion  of  conflicts  even  in  their  rhythmical  form 
(cf.  these  metres  in  the  tables).  As  a  result  he  was  obliged  to 
shift  his  base  of  operations  from  the  influence  of  popular  accentual 
pronunciation  to  the  influence  of  the  verse-ictus.  But  this  is  only 
an  awkward  attempt  to  avoid  the  issue.  For  how  can  there  be  a 
prominence  of  the  verse  -  ictus  apart  from  the  prominence  of  the 
syllables  standing  in  the  arsis'?  In  metrical  poetry  this  promin- 
ence depends  upon  the  prominence  of  a  series  of  longs  ^),  recurring 
at  certain  intervals,  over  the  intervening  syllables,  which  are  very 
largely  short ;  in  accentual  poetry  it  depends  upon  the  prominence 
of  the  accented  and  emphatic  syllables  over  the  unaccented  and 
unemphatic  syllables.  To  say  then  that  verse-ictus  brought  about 
rhythmic  poetry  is  to  assign  as  a  cause  what  is  merely  an  atten- 
dant phenomenon. 

If  on  the  other  hand  we  take  Huemer's  statement  made 
in  the  beginning  of  the  "Untersuchungen"  that  rhythmical  poetry 
came  about  through  concessions  to  popular  accentual  pronun- 
ciation, a  mere  glance  at  the  tables  previously  presented,  or 
at  his  own  (Unters.  p.  32),  will  convince  one  that  the  facts 
are  against  the  theory.  For  with  the  exception  of  the  trochaic 
tetrameter  and,  to  a  less  degree,  the  iambic  trimeter,  every 
rhythmical  verse  -  form  shows  abundant  and  regular  conflicts 
between  accent  and  ictus ,  and  it  is  surely  contrary  to  common 
sense  to  suppose  that  the  accent  caused  rhythmical  poetry,  when 
rhythmical  poetry  itself  is  not  accentual  to  any  marked  degree. 
But  the  unsoundness  of  the  theory  is  shown  still  more  clearly  by 
the  fact  that  among  the  most  perfectly  accentual  specimens  are 
some  of  the  metrical  hymns  (cf.  Iambic  Dimeter  B  2  and  C, 
Trochaic  Tetrameter  A  and  B  in  the  tables).  In  fact  in  both  the 
trochaic  tetrameter,  which  reached  the  highest  accentual  character, 
and  in  the  iambic  dimeter,  which  took  some  steps  in  this  direction, 
no  progress  seems  to  have  been  made  by  the  rhythmical  hymns 
over  the  more  advanced    metrical  ones  ;    rather ,   if  anything ,    the 

1)  This  is  of  course  uot  to  be  interpreted  as  excliuliug  the  possibility  of  a 
resolution  of  the  long  syllable  in  the  arsis.  Anapaests  as  well  as  spondees 
may  take  the  place  of  trochees  and  still  leave  the  verse  trochaic  in  rhythm 
through  the  preponderance  of  trochaic  feet.  If  we  were  to  introduce  a  sufficient 
number  of  anapaestic  feet,  the  rhythm  would  no  longer  remain  trochaic,  since  the 
verse-ictus  would  naturally  fall  upon  that  part  of  the  successive  feet,  where  the 
largest  number  of  long  syllables  is  found. 


—    14    — 

fully  developed  rhythmical  hymns  show  a  slight  retrogression 
from  the  stage  of  accentual  development  reached  by  the  metrical 
hymns.  Such  a  state  of  things  is  wholly  at  variance  with  the 
theory  of  accentual  influence.  For  one  can  see  that  the  accentual 
character  might  not  be  fully  developed  while  the  verse  remained 
metrical,  on  account  of  the  restrictions  imposed  by  the  metre; 
But  one  must  at  any  rate  expect  that ,  when  these  restrictions 
were  removed,  the  accent  would  gain  control  of  the  verse  and 
change  its  character  completely.  Surely,  if  the  accent  was  able, 
even  when  hampered  by  the  rules  of  quantity,  to  accomplish  the 
progress  toward  an  accentual  character  as  we  see  it  in  the  met- 
rical hymns  ,  it  would  do  incomparably  more  when  left  to  itself, 
as  it  is  in  the  rhythmical  hymns.  But  it  did  not  do  anything 
under  these  favorable  conditions :  hence  we  must  conclude  that 
what  happened  under  unfavorable  ones  was  not  its  work. 

But  even  the  statement  to  which  Huemer  at  last  confines 
himself,  that  in  the  end  there  were  two  classes  of  hymns,  the  one 
merely  insisting  on  harmony  between  accent  and  ictus  in  certain 
parts  of  the  verse ,  the  other  striving  for  complete  harmony 
(Unters.  p.  59) ,  is  misleading.  Our  tables  (as  well  as  his)  show 
that  to  the  latter  class  of  hymns  belong  only  those  in  trochaic 
tetrameter,  while  the  iambic  dimeter  and  the  second  half  of  the 
asclepiadean  belong  to  the  former,  and  the  sapphic,  the  first  half 
of  the  asclepiadean  and,  as  Meyer  has  shown,  the  hexameter,  do 
not  make  any  appreciable  effort  at  avoiding  conflict  in  either  their 
metrical  or  their  rhythmical  forms. 

The  percentage  of  words  showing  a  conflict  between  accent 
and  ictus  found  by  Huemer  (p.  32)  in  the  early  rhythmical  hymns 
which  he  has  examined  is  as  follows : 


Iambic 

Trochaic 

10.04 

0 

27.8 

14.9 

31.12 

5.5 

55.3 

5.6 

29.7 

14.9 

37.4 

9.7 

36.2 

9.6 

9.04 

4.7 

11.3 

6.1 

16.6 

21.4 

Average  25.99  + 

Average  7.88  — 

—    IB    — 

Of  course  there  are  wide  variations  in  each  metre,  due  no 
doubt  to  a  variety  of  causes.  Some  of  the  writers  of  rhythmical 
hymns  in  iambic  dimeter  were  in  constant  danger  of  slipping  into 
the  trochaic  measure,  as  is  seen  by  the  fact  that  they  admit 
trochaic  lines  occasionally^).  This  admission  was  accomplished  Ijy 
lopping  off  the  first  syllable  of  the  iambic  verse.  When  that 
happened,  or  even  if  the  first  syllable  of  the  iambic  dimeter  was 
merely  considered  an  anacrusis,  the  verse  was  practically  trochaic, 
and  the  same  characteristics  might  be  expected  as  are  found  in 
the  second  half  of  the  trochaic  tetrameter. 

But  in  spite  of  the  variety  which  thus  exists  within  the  sep- 
arate metres ,  the  general  statement  is  no  doubt  true ,  that  the 
degree  of  harmony  attained  between  word-accent  and  verse  -  ictus 
depends  upon  the  kind  of  metre  used,  and  is  not  the  result  of  a 
common  influence  like  the  accent,  which  would  afi^ect  all  kinds  of 
verse  alike. 

Lewis'  Theory.  —  A  few  additions  have  recently  been 
made  to  the  accentual  theory  by  Charlton  M.  Lewis  (Foreign 
Sources  of  Modern  English  Versification).  He  holds  with  Huemer 
that  in  the  time  of  Augustine  "what  actually  appealed  to  the  ear 
in  the  reading  of  these  hymns  was  not  the  quantity  but  the  metrical 
ictus"  (p.  26) ,  without  of  course  showing  how  a  fixed  metrical 
ictus  would  be  maintained  in  hymns  which  were  not  yet  accentual, 
at  a  time  when  as  he  says  (p.  24)  natural  prosody  was  dead. 

Sedulius  and  Fortunatus ,  he  thinks ,  paid  attention  to  accent 
as  well  as  to  quantity  in  the  composition  of  their  hymns,  a  view 
which  we  shall  meet  again  in  connection  with  another  theory. 
How  easy  it  is  to  fall  into  this  way  of  thinking,  can  be  seen  from 
the  fact  that  it  has  even  been  thought  that  Horace  paid  atten- 
tion to  both  accent  and  quantity  in  the  composition  of  the 
sapphic  line.  Now  it  is  true  that  accent  and  ictus  coincide  nearly 
always  in  the  end  of  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses  of  Fortunatus 
and  Sedulius,  as  well  as  of  their  contemporaries  and  successors. 
It  is  also  true  that  the  sapphics  of  Horace  nearly  always ,  and 
those  of  Seneca  with  perhaps  one  exception  (Ag.  865),  have  their 


1)  Mone  III,  449,  1  6.     Turba  laudem  concinit. 
Dan.  I,  70,  1  5.     Hora  prima  psallimus. 
Dan.  I,  72,  1  2.     Christus  deprecandus  est. 
Dan.  I,  102,  1  27.    Ensis  et  craticulae. 
Dau.  I,  44,  1  7.    Sed  oremus  sedule. 

There  is  a  case  of  a  suppressed  thesis  in  Dan.  I,  no.  66,  1  1.    lam  cur- 
sus  borae  sextae. 


—    16     — 

accents  on  certain  syllables.  Bat  these  facts  need  not  have  come 
about  because  these  metrical  poets  recognized  the  accent  as  a  metrical 
principle.  If  this  had  really  been  the  case,  it  could  only  have  res- 
ulted from  an  increased  prominence  of  the  accent,  and  then  it  is 
assing  strange  that  it  should  not  have  occurred  in  other  metres. 
Over  nine-tenths  of  the  poetry  of  Sedulius  and  Fortunatus  was  written 
in  the  hexameter  or  the  elegiac  distich,  and  these  verses  are  not  a 
whit  more  accentual  than  they  had  been  at  any  time  in  their  history. 
More  than  that,  our  common  sense  tells  us  that  such  a  practice  as  wri- 
ting poetry  according  to  two  different  principles  at  the  same  time, 
could  never  become  a  universal  and  permanent  custom,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  peculiar  assumption  that ,  while  the  accent  played 
a  very  subordinate  part  in  early  and  classical  Latin  and  now 
plays  a  subordinate  part  in  the  Romance  languages,  there  should 
have  been  a  period  between  these  two,  when  it  was  strong  enough 
to  usurp  the  supremacy  of  the  verse.  The  coincidence  between 
accent  and  ictus  which  is  found  in  the  later  quantitative  iambic 
and  trochaic  metres,  was  due  to  a  far  different  and  very  natural 
cause,  as  we  shall  see  (p.  52  ff.). 

A  more  original  contribution  is  made  by  Lewis  in  his  theory 
of  "initial  inversions."  His  view  is  that  the  normal  form  of  rhyth- 
mical verse  was  accentual  throughout,  and  that  the  conflicts  which 
occur  so  frequently,  in  the  first  half  of  the  rhythmical  iambic  di- 
meter for  instance,  were  merely  "interruptions  to  the  smooth  flow 
of  the  ideal  rhythm,"  which  "occur  often  enough  to  prevent  mo- 
notony" (p.  39).  It  requires  great  courage  to  state  such  a  theory 
after  finding  that  Adam  of  St.  Victor  has  71  single  and  89  double 
inversions,  i.  e.  altogether  249  inverted  feet,  in  a  total  of  310  iam- 
bic eight  -  syllable  lines,  while  in  318  trochaic  lines  of  eight  or 
seven  syllables  by  the  same  author  there  are  but  28  inverted  feet. 
Can  it  be  that  the  iambic  line  was  in  its  ideal  state  nine  times 
as  monotonous  as  the  trochaic  line?  For  this  difference  holds  not 
only  in  a  single  writer  but ,  as  can  be  seen  from  the  tables ,  for 
the  later  iambic  and  trochaic  verses  generally.  And  what  shall 
we  say  of  the  other  metres  which  continued  in  their  rhythmical 
state  to  have  the  same  number  of  conflicts  (Table  of  iambic  di- 
meters D  1 ,  sapphic  B ,  and  asclepiadean  B  and  C)  which  they 
had  had  in  their  quantitative  state? 

Lewis  also  makes  the  point  that,  as  early  as  Sedulius  and 
Fortunatus,  the  inversions  always  fall  on  dissyllables  (p.  27),  and 
that  "in  the  care  with  which  the  accent  of  polysyllables  is  pre- 
served,  there  is    a  peculiar   significance"  (p.  29).     It  is  perhaps 


—     17     — 

true ,  as  Lewis  suggests ,  that  the  departure  from  the  accentual 
rhythm  is  less  striking  wlicn  a  word  of  two  syllables  has  the 
ictus  on  the  last,  than  when  a  word  like  "errorum"  has  the  ictus 
on  the  first  and  last  syllables.  But  the  fact  in  the  case  is  that 
in  those  quantitative  iambic  dimeters  and  second  parts  of  trochaic 
tetrameters  which  show  an  agreement  of  accent  and  ictus  at  the 
end,  there  is  no  possible  chance  for  a  conflict  of  accent  and  ictus 
in  other  words  than  those  of  two  syllables,  since  a  word  of  three 
or  more  syllables  never  has  the  accent  on  a  short  syllable  unless 
this  syllable  is  followed  by  another  short,  and  for  words  of  this 
kind  there  is  no  place  in  the  metrical  form  of  the  verses  mentioned. 
A  word  like  "errorum",  moreover,  is  excluded  from  these  quanti- 
tative verses  by  the  fact  that  in  order  to  have  harmony  of  accent 
and  ictus,  the  end  of  the  line  must  be  formed  either  by  a  poly- 
syllable, or  by  a  dissj-llable  or  a  pol^^syllable  plus  a  monosyllable. 
When  either  of  these  endings  occurs,  there  is  left  only  a^  ^  u  _^  H  or 
-z-  u  ^  ^  in  the  two  cases  respectively.  The  divided  form  of  the 
first  part  of  the  trochaic  tetrameter  (—  ^  _  ^  ||  _  u  —  ^)  which 
had  become  almost  the  only  form  used  by  the  time  of  Fortunatus, 
does  not  admit  conflicts  at  all,  except  when  a  monosyllable  stands 
before  the  caesura,  and  then  only  in  words  of  two  syllables. 

The  "Degeneration"  Theory. 

Opposed  to  the  theory  just  treated  is  the  older  view  —  usu- 
ally a  general  impression  rather  than  a  theory  —  that  rhythmical 
poetry  is  the  result  of  a  negligent  and  corrupt  pronunciation  that 
came  with  the  decline  of  culture  and  the  conquests  of  the  barba- 
rians. This  view  has  been  elaborated  by  Lucian  Miiller  (d.  satur- 
nischeVers,  p.  28  ff.  and  de  re  metr.  2nd  ed.,  p.  554  fF.),  who  holds 
that  the  change  from  metrical  to  rhythmical  poetry  was  due  to  igno- 
rance or  neglect  of  quantity  (d.  sat.  V.  p.  28;  de  re  metr.  p.  554); 
that  the  earlier  rhythmical  poetry  showed  all  the  conflicts  between 
verse-ictus  and  word-accent  which  are  found  in  metrical  poetry 
generally  (d.  sat.  V.  p.  29);  and  that  only  later  on,  after  the  ne- 
glect of  quantity  had  become  general,  did  the  practice  originate 
of  writing  poetry  according  to  the  accent,  a  practice  which  was 
brought  about  by  the  need  of  having  something  to  give  character 
and  firmness  (einen  Halt)  to  the  verse  (d.  sat.  V.  p.  30  and  31). 

Of  these  three  tenets  the  last  is  shown  to  be  false  by  the 
relation  which  we  have  found  existing  between  the  neglect  of 
quantity  and  the  coincidence   between  accent  and   ictus.    As  we 

2 


-    18    - 

have  seen,  tlie  accentual  development  not  only,  to  a  large  extent, 
preceded  the  admission  of  unmetrical  syllables,  but  actually  reached 
its  height  in  the  metrical  hymns  (cf.  pp.  13—14). 

The  second  contention,  namely  that  the  earlier  rhythmical 
poetry  showed  all  the  conflicts  between  verse-ictus  and  word-accent 
which  are  found  in  metrical  poetry  generally ,  is  probably  true 
to  the  extent  that  between  the  rhythmical  and  metrical  hymns  of 
the  same  period  there  was  perhaps,  if  we  make  allowance  for  in- 
dividual peculiarities,  no  great  difference  so  far  as  the  extent 
of  the  coincidence  between  accent  and  ictus  is  concerned.  This 
appears  when  we  compare  with  one  another  a  number  of  early 
hymns,  metrical  and  rhythmical,  which  are  referred  to  in  the 
writings  of  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century.  All  but  the 
last  one  of  these  hymns  are  mentioned  in  the  regula  of  Aurelianus, 
bishop  of  Aries  f  555  A.D. ;  the  last  hymn  is  quoted  by  Cassiodorus, 
in  the  Exp.  in  Psalt.  CI  (Migne  LXX,  707)  which  was  written 
about  550  A.  D.  Of  these  hymns  the  first  three  belong  to  Am- 
brosius  and  are  therefore  earlier  and,  generally  speaking,  less 
faulty  and  less  accentual  than  the  others. 


number  of 
conflicts  be- 
tween accent 

and  ictus. 


lam  surgit  hora  tcrtia 32  1  37 

Splendor  paternae  gloriae 32  1  27 

Deus  creator  omnium 32  1  29 

Hie  est  dies  verus  dei 32  0  45 

Ter  hora  trina  volvitur 32  0  22 

lam  sexta  sensim  volvitur 40  4  13 

Fulgentis  auctor  aetheris 20  9  18 

Deus  qui  certis  legibus 20  10  15 

Aeterne  lucis  conditor 24         21  17 

E,ex  aeterne  domine 64         72  25 

Bis  ternas  horas  explicans 32         36  24 

The  statement  made  by  Miiller  is  not  true ,  however ,  in  the 
sense  in  which  he  himself  understands  it ,  namely  that  the  early 
rhythmical  hymns  are  no  more  accentual  than  quantitative  poetry 
had  always  been  —  „so  wurde  audi  das  beiden  klassischen  Sprachen 
gemeinsame  Princip,  den  poetischen  Iktus  moglichst  in  Widerstreit 
zum  grammatischen  Accent  zu  bringen,  am  Ende  der  metrischen 
Eeihe  aber  ein  Monosyllabum  mit  vorhergehendem  mehrsilbigen 
Wort  zu  meiden,    unverandert  in   die  rhythmische  Poesie   iiberge- 


—     19    — 

nommen."  (D.  Sat.  Vers,  p.  29).  For,  as  is  clearly  evident  from 
the  tables  previously  presented  (compare  la.  Dim.  A  2  and  A  3 
with  A  1;  als(')  Trocli.  Tetram.  A),  at  the  time  of  the  earlier  rhyth- 
mical h^-mns  all  iambic  and  trochaic  verses  had  in  large  measure 
become  accentual. 

The  lirst  of  the  three  statements ,  that  the  origin  of  rhyth- 
mical poetry  was  due  to  ignorance  or  neglect  of  quantity,  calls 
for  a  few  words  of  comment.  The  ignorance  and  neglect  of  quan- 
tity which  Miiller  mentions,  he  attributes  to  the  decline  of  culture 
and  to  the  growing  influence  of  the  provinces  where  Latin  was 
spoken.  That  the  pronunciation  of  Latin  in  the  provinces  differed  in 
many  respects  from  that  at  Rome  ,  that  distinctions  of  quantity, 
if  we  are  to  draw  an  inference  from  the  modern  Romance  lan- 
guages, were  perhaps  less  marked,  is  no  doubt  true.  To  be  sure, 
the  Latin  in  which  the  hymns  were  written  is  still  Latin,  it  is 
not  Romance.  This  fact  does  not,  however,  exclude  the  possibility 
of  a  lack  of  sensitiveness  in  the  pronunciation  of  quantity.  And, 
this  tendency  being  at  work ,  it  would  be  made  much  easier  for 
the  rhythmical  practice  to  gain  the  upper  hand  as  it  did.  Yes, 
in  the  course  ot  time  and  among  people  who  did  not  have  a  specific 
knowledge  of  the  character  of  ancient  verse,  a  factor  like  this 
might  be  able  unaided  to  break  down  the  classical  standards. 

But  did  it  as  a  matter  of  fact  do  this?  We  have  already 
seen  that  it  could  not  have  given  the  verse  its  accentual  quality 
for  the  simple  reason  that  this  was  established  apart  from,  and 
to  a  large  extent  before  the  admission  of  unmetrical  syllables,  in 
which  alone  the  working  of  such  a  tendency  as  that  under  dis- 
cussion would  appear.  Was  it  then  this  dialectal  lack  of  sen- 
sitiveness to  quantity  which  biought  about  the  neglect  of  quantity 
as  we  find  it,  for  instance,  in  the  hymns  and  inscriptions  ? 

It  is  a  fact,  as  can  be  seen  from  the  tables  previously  pre- 
sented, that  the  extent  of  the  neglect  of  quantity  differs  widely 
in  different  parts  of  the  verse.  For  instance,  it  is  usually  greater 
in  the  third  arsis  of  the  iambic  dimeter  and  the  third  and  seventh 
arses  of  the  trochaic  tetrameter  ,  and  it  is  hardly  ever  found  in 
the  last  thesis  of  either  kind  of  verse.  Besides  this  the  individual 
hymns  show  very  marked  individual  peculiarities.  From  an  exam- 
ination of  the  tables  we  find  that  all  these  peculiarities  are 
particularly  prominent  in  the  rhythmical  hymns  which  are  but 
partly  developed ,  that  is,  which  still  belong  to  the  transitional 
stage,  the  very  time  when  soihe  force  or  influence  was  at 
causing  a  neglect  of  quantity.  //^ 

2  *    f    -Tl-TIVERSITY 


—     20    — 

Now  if  the  lack  of  sensitiveness  to  quantity  were  the  only, 
or  even  the  leading  cause  of  this  neglect,  the  differences  spoken 
of  ought  not  to  exist,  at  least  not  to  such  an  extent  as  they  (jlo. 
For  the  want  of  a  sense  of  quantity  would  surely  not  manifest 
itself  regularly  and  freely  in  certain  parts  of  the  verse  and  very 
rarely,  if  at  all,  in  others.  Why  then  does  this  unevenness  exist 
in  the  verse,  why  do  we  so  rarely  have  a  long  syllable  in  the 
last  thesis  ?  This  we  might  perhaps,  for  want  of  a  better  explan- 
ation ,  consider  to  be  an  inherent  and  inalienable  feature  of  the 
verse  itself,  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  we  do  have  a  small 
number  of  hymns  which  show  a  very  close  approach  to  such  a 
condition  of  affairs  as  we  should  expect  if  the  lack  of  sensitive- 
ness to  distinctions  of  quantity  were  the  sole  cause  of  rhyth- 
mical poetry.    Three  may  be  mentioned  as  especially  remarkable^): 

Mone  I,  447  Archangelum  mirum  magnum, 

Dan.  I,  68  Deus  aeterne  luminis, 

Mone  I,  96  Summi  largitor  praemii. 

The  first  of  these  has  ten  cases  of  a  long  syllable  in  the  last 
thesis  in  a  total  of  48  lines ,  the  second  has  five  in  24  lines  and 
the  third  has  ten  in  20  lines.  There  are  some  other  hymns  which, 
as  the  tables  show,  have  scattering  cases  of  this  kind,  and  they 
occur  mainly,  though  not  exclusively,  in  the  less  developed  rhyth- 
mical hymns.  This  is  but  natural.  For  in  the  first  place  metrical 
forms  were  then  nearer  being  in  a  state  of  flux  than  before  or 
after  ,  and  had  less  power  of  resisting  any  sort  of  tendency  or 
influence.  And,  besides  that,  it  is  only  in  this  earlier  period  that 
the  dialects  which  later  developed  into  the  various  Romance 
languages ,  were  still  sufiiciently  like  High  Latin  to  influence  its 
pronunciation.  Later  on,  by  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  the 
vernacular  had  become  so  different  from  Latin  that  it  was  felt  to 
be  a  different  tongue  and  in  fact  was  used  by  a  different  class 
of  people.  As  soon  as  this  divergence  had  reached  a  certain 
point ,  the  two  tongues  could  of  course  no  longer  influence  each 
other  in  pronunciation. 

The  fact  which  interests  us  at  present  is  that  the  number  of 
those  hymns  which  seem  to  have  been  written  by  persons  with 
very  slight  sensitiveness  to  quantity,  is  so  small  as  to  justify  us 
in  calling  them  the  exceptions  which  prove  the  rule.  Our  conclu- 
sion is  therefore  this.     The  "neglect  of  quantity"  as  Lucian  Miiller 

1)  Compare  also  the  Hymnus  abecedarius  contra  antitrinitarios  (Boucherie, 
Melanges  latins  et  bas-latins)  which  has  fifteen  cases  of  a  long  penultimate  syl- 
lable in  280  iambic  dimeters. 


—    21    — 

understands  and  uses  that  term,  would  have  been  capable  in  itself 
of  brcalving  down  the  structure  of  Latin  poetry,  but  the  fact  that 
its  intiuence  is  unmistakably  and  positively  seen  only  in  a  very 
few  liymns  in  the  most  susceptible  period  of  linguistic  and  metrical 
development,  and  in  most  of  the  h3'mns  is  not  seen  at  all,  shows 
this  "neglect"    to  have    been  a  comparatively   unimportant  factor. 

There  is  the  further  fact  to  be  accounted  for ,  that  during 
the  same  time  in  whicli  rhj-thmical  hymns  were  composed,  metrical 
hymns  continued  to  be  written ;  indeed  some  metres ,  such  as  the 
hexameter,  which  were  very  frequently  used,  are  almost  without 
exception  found  in  the  metrical  form.  And  more  than  that,  some- 
times the  same  men  who  wrote  metrical  hexameters  and  penta- 
meters, also  wrute  rhythmical  iambic  dimeters  or  trochaic  tetra- 
meters. This  was  the  practice  of  Aldhelm ,  Boniface ,  Paulus 
Diaconus ,  Petrus  Diaconus  and  probably  of  Bede  ^).  With  the 
writers  of  the  Carolingian  period,  there  was  the  further  distinction 
that  the  iambic  dimeter  was  usually  employed  in  its  metrical  form, 
while  the  iambic  trimeter  and  trochaic  tetrameter  were  more  often 
used  in  their  rhythmical  forms. 

All  this  points  to  the  same  conclusion  which  we  reached  be- 
fore, that  there  was  a  diiference  in  the  treatment  and  development 
of  the  ditferent  metres ,  and  that  no  general  influence  can  have 
caused  the  phenomena  which  we  find  in  rhythmical  poetry. 

The  Theory  of  Semitic  Influence. 

Before  we  pass  to  an  examination  of  the  literary  remains 
which  furnish  evidence  as  to  the  nature  of  the  change  from  met- 
rical to  rhythmical  verse ,  it  will  be  necessary  to  mention  the 
attempt  whicli  has  been  made  to  explain  this  change  independently 
of,  and  without  reference  to  the  previous  metrical  forms  of  the 
language.  This  is  the  theory  of  W.  Meyer  (Anfang  u.  Ursprung 
d.  lat.  u.  griech.  rhythm.  Dichtung).  Meyer  has  after  extended  and 
thorough  investigations  satisfied  himself  that  neither  the  "accentual 
theory"  nor  the  "corrupt  pronunciation  theory"  can  explain  the 
origin  of  rhythmical  poetry,  and  he  thinks  he  has  found  this  origin  in 
the  Semitic,  and  particularly  the  Syrian  and  Hebrew  church  poetry. 

„Als  ich  erkannt  hatte,"  he  says  (p.  113=377),  „wie  ahnlich 
die  altesten  Rythmen  der  Lateiner  und  Griechen  einander  in 
vielen  inneren  und  ausseren  Stlicken  seien,  wie  aber  dennoch  weder 

1)  The  passage  iu  which  he  inentious  amoug    his  works  a  "liber  hymnorum 
diverso  metro  sive  rhythmo,"  is  usually  interpreted  in  this  way. 


—    22    ~ 

gleichzeitiger  einheimischer  Ursprung,  noch  Uebergang  der  ryth- 
mischen  Dichtung  von  den  Lateinern  zu  den  Griechen  oder  umge- 
kehrt  angenommcn  werden  konne,  war  ich  lange  in  peinlicher  Un- 
ruhe ;  endlich  bekam  ich  Licht ,  als  ich  dieselben  Formen  in  den 
Dichtungen  der  semitischen  Christen  aus  friihester  Zeit  wieder- 
fand  und  mir  vergegenwartigte  ,  wie  lebhaft  in  den  ersten  Zeiten 
der  geistige  Austausch  der  Christen  der  verschiedenen  Nationen 
war,  und  immer  fester  wurde  die  Ucberzeugung,  dass  weder  die 
lateinische  noch  die  griechische  Rythmik  ein  einheimisches  Gewachs 
sei,  sondern  dass  das  Grundprincip  der  rythmischen  Dichtung  nebst 
manchen  auffallenden  Aeusserlichkeiten  mit  dem  Christenthum  von 
den  Semiten  zu  den  Lateinern  einerseits  und  zu  den  Griechen 
andererseits  iibergegangen  sei.  Durch  jenes  semitische  Vorbild 
wurden  diese  Volker  angeregt,  die  Quantitat  der  Silben  nicht 
mehr  zu  beachten,  woraus  die  Aussprache  nach  dem  Wortaccent 
sich  von  selbst  ergab ,  dagegen  auf  die  Silbenzabl  zu  achten ,  die 
Zeilen  in  Gruppen  oder  Strophen  zu  schliessen,  die  Gruppen  oder 
Strophen  durch  Akrosticha  oder  Reim  zu  binden.  Diese  Elemente 
finden  wir  fast  alle  schon  bei  den  Syrern." 

This  is  in  reality  an  article  of  faith  rather  than  a  theory. 
For  our  ignorance  of  the  practices  which  obtained  in  the  singing 
of  the  early  church,  and  especially  our  ignorance  of  the  nature 
of  the  music,  make  it  very  hard  to  prove  or  to  refute  it.  Still, 
we  are  at  present  concerned  only  with  the  Latin  side  of  the  pro- 
position, and  from  this  side,  at  least,  some  very  weighty  arguments 
of  a  general  nature  can  be  urged  against  it. 

To  begin  with,  Latin  was  a  fully-developed  language  with  an 
extensive  literature,  and  its  poetry  had  for  a  number  of  centuries 
been  consistently  quantitative.  There  can  be  but  little  doubt  that 
substantially  the  same  distinction  between  long  and  short  syllables 
that  we  find  in  poetry,  appeared  also  in  the  pronunciation  of  the 
language  in  its  non-poetical  uses.  Further,  in  the  Semitic  countries 
of  the  Eoman  empire,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  vernacular  was 
displaced  by  Latin,  or  that  Romance  dialects  were  formed.  Con- 
sequently the  Latin  spoken  in  these  provinces  must  have  been  the 
Latin  of  the  officials  and  soldiers  sent  from  Rome,  and  must  have 
remained  comparatively  free  from  Semitic  corruption  of  its  pro- 
nunciation. There  was  therefore,  from  this  side,  no  stepping-stone 
between  Syrian  and  Latin  which  would  have  facilitated  the  passage 
of  influence  from  one  to  the  other. 

In  spite  of  this,  however,  it  must  be  admitted  that  at  first 
sight  Meyer's   theory   has   a   certain  plausibility.     For  while   the 


—     23     - 

early  Christians  were  hostile  to  the  pagan  literature  and  especi- 
ally to  the  pagan  poetry,  they  did  stand,  through  tlioir  religion, 
in  close  relation  to  the  Syrians.  The  practice  of  composing  liymns 
for  the  use  of  the  churches  no  doubt  originated  in  the  East ,  and 
it  would  go  without  saying  that  this  with  other  religious  practices 
would  naturally  be  adopted  in  the  West  just  as  the  principles  of 
the  faith  had  been  adopted.  Yes,  we  are  expressly  told  that  the 
singing  of  hymns  and  psalms  introduced  by  Ambrosius ,  was  done 
after  the  Eastern  manner,  and  we  have  two  contemporary  wit- 
nesses who,  independently  of  each  other,  testify  to  the  fact  that  it 
was  from  this  introduction  by  Ambrosius  that  church  -  singing 
spread  over  the  West^). 

But  instead  of  being  favorable  to  Meyer's  theory,  this  fact  is 
really  against  it.  For  this  very  Ambrosius  who  introduced  the 
Eastern  manner  of  church-singing ,  himself  wrote  hj^mns  for  the 
use  of  his  church,  and  these ,  as  well  as  most  of  the  other  early 
hymns,  follow  the  Latin  rules  of  quantity  as  strictly  as  we  could 
expect  from  writers  belonging  to  the  age  in  which  they  were 
composed.  It  is  not  till  a  century  or  more  later  that  rhythmical 
hymns  can  be  shown  to  have  existed.  But  these  rhythmical  hymns 
have  the  same  measure  and  rhythm  as  the  earlier ,  quantitative 
ones  and  it  would  be  a  bold  assertion  to  make,  that  when  Latin 
hymns  in  iambic  dimeter  already  existed  in  some  abundance,  those 
who  wrote  rhythmical  hymns  of  the  same  pattern  took  as  their 
models  the  Syrian  hymns  and  not  the  Latin  hymns  which  were 
already  in  use  in  their  own  churches.  If  then  a  Syrian  influence 
is  not  apparent  in  the  hj-mns  of  the  man  who  introduced  Syrian 
church-singing  into  the  Latin  churches,  we  surely  can  not  assume 
Syrian  influence  in  the  hymns  of  the  next  few  centuries,  which 
were  modeled  upon  his  so  closely  and  faithfully  as  to  be  called 
by  his  name,  "hymni  Ambrosiani." 

"We  may  draw  two  conclusions  from  this  evidence,  first  that 
in  the  introduction  of  church-singing  from  the  East,  no  method 
of  versification  was  adopted  which  was  diff'erent  from  that  which 
was  current  in   Latin ,    and   second  that   no    melodies    or   musical 


1)  Aiigiistiu.  confess.  IX.  7.  "Tuuc  hymiii  et  psalmi  ut  canerentur  secuudura 
morem  orieutalium  iiartium,  ne  populus  maeroris  taedio  contabesceret,  iustitutum 
est;  et  ex  illo  in  hodieruum  retentum,  multis  jam  et  paene  omnibus  gregibus  tuis 
et  per  cetera  orbis  imitautibus." 

Vita  S.  Ambrosii  auctore  Paulino  eius  uotario,  cbap.  13.  "Hoc  in  tempore 
primum  antipbonae,  hymni  ac  vigiliae  in  ccclesia  Mediolanensi  celebrari  coeperunt, 
cuius  celebritatis  devotio  usque  in  hodieruum  diem  uou  solum  in  eadem  ecclesia, 
verum  per  omues  peue  occideutis  proviucias  mauet." 


—    24    — 

schemes  were  introduced  of  a  kind  sufficiently  pronounced  to  shape 
or  change  the  character  of  the  verse. 

But  however  much  Meyer  may  disagree  with  the  other  theo- 
ries of  the  origin  of  rhythmical  verse,  he  has  in  common  with 
them  a  weakness  for  passing  over  lightly  whatever  is  inconven- 
ient in  the  evidence.  For  although  Latin  hymn  -  writing ,  as  we 
know  it,  began  with  Ambrosius  and  it  is  mainly  in  hymns  of 
the  same  pattern  as  his  that  we  see  rhythmical  verse  developed, 
Meyer  refers  to  this  whole  part  of  the  subject  only  in  a  very 
general  and  perfunctory  way  in  a  few  short  chapters  at  the  end 
of  his  treatise.  His  main  attention,  on  the  Latin  side,  is  directed 
to  the  irregular  hexameters  of  Commodian  and  Augustine's  Psalmus 
contra  partem  Donati,  even  though  these  are  surely  not  the  direct 
ancestors  of  the  rhythmical  verse  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Still,  as 
it  is  from  an  examination  of  these  and  a  few  later  specimens  of 
a  similar  character  that  he  arrives  at  his  conclusion  previously 
mentioned,  it  is  but  fair  that  we  should  examine  briefly  the  va- 
rious points  at  which  he  assumes  an  influence  of  Syrian  or  Hebrew 
poetry.  These  points  are:  1.  Rhyme;  2.  Acrostichs ;  3.  Groups 
of  lines  and  strophes;  4.  Equality  of  the  lines  in  respect  to  the 
number  of  sjdlables  (Silbenzahlung) ;  5.  Disregard  of  quantity,  and 
as  a  result,  accentual  pronunciation  (1.  c.  p.  113=377). 

In  regard  to  rhyme  he  is  himself  in  great  doubt;  and  his  own 
statement  will  be  a  sufiicient  refutation  of  his  claim.  After  re- 
ferring to  the  fact  (p.  379)  that  the  Arabians  had  a  highly  devel- 
oped rhyme  about  500  A.  D.,  he  says:  „Allein  die  Araber  waren 
damals  noch  so  isolirt,  dass  nicht  daran  zu  denken  ist,  von  ihnen 
batten  Commodian  oder  Augustin  ihren  Tiradenreim  gelernt.  Bei 
den  Hebraern  und  bei  den  Syrern  finden  sich  lleime,  doch  nur  in 
solcher  Ausdehnung,  dass  man  darnach  wohl  die  Reimprosa  und 
den  Reim  in  den  Hymnen  der  Griechen  sich  erklaren  kann.  Da- 
gegen  kann  der  auffallige  Tiradenreim  bei  Commodian  und  Au- 
gustin, sowie  die  ziemlich  ausgebreitete  Reimprosa  der  Lateiner 
aus  den  geringen  Ansatzen  der  Hebraer  und  Syrer,  welche  wir 
kennen,  nicht  erklart  werden"  ^). 

Acrostichs  are  found  in  a  few  instances  in  Latin  before  the 
time  of  Commodian,  as  Meyer  admits.  The  abecedaria  are  in  all 
probability   a  product   of  the    Semitic    languages.     They   exist   in 

1)  More  recently  Meyer  seems  to  have  thought  of  the  rhyme  in  Latin  prose 
as  preliminary  to  the  poetic  rhyme  in  point  of  development,  cf.  Gott.  gel.  Anz. 
1893,  p.  8.  For  the  view  that  the  poetic  rhyme  sprang  from  the  rhyme  of  prose, 
see  Nordeu,  die  Autike  Kuustprosa,  Appendix. 


—    26    - 

Hebrew  and  Syrian  in  considerable  abundance,  and  as  we  gather 
from  a  passage  in  Augustine  (Enarratiu  in  Psalm.  118,  sermo  32,8), 
they  were  somewhat  common  in  his  day  in  Punic  —  and  in  Latin. 
The  passage  is  interesting  also  in  showing  that  Augustine  could 
not  have  had  the  practice  from  Hebrew  at  first  hand.  It  reads : 
''Quod  autem  de  alphabeto  hcbraeo,  ubi  octoni  versus  singulis  sub- 
iacent  litteris  ,  atque  ita  psalmus  totus  contexitur,  nihil  dixi ,  non 
sit  mirum,  quoniam  nihil  quod  ad  istum  proprie  pertineret  inveni : 
non  enim  solus  habet  has  litteras.  Illud  sane  sciant  qui  hoc  in 
graeca  et  latina  scriptura,  quoniam  non  illic  servatum  est,  invenire 
non  ptissunt,  omnes  octonos  in  hebraicis  codicibus  ab  ea  quae  illis 
proponitur  littera  incipere ;  sicut  nobis  ab  eis  qui  illas  novcrunt 
litteras,  indicatum  est.  Quod  multo  diligentius  factum  est ,  quam 
nostri  vel  latine  vel  punice,  quos  abecedarius  vacant  psalmos ,  fa- 
cere  consueverunt.  Non  enim  omnes  versus  donee  claudatur  pcri- 
odus,  sed  solos  primos  ab  eadem  littera  incipiunt,  quam  praeponunt." 

But  even  if  we  grant  that  the  abecedaria  in  Latin  owe  their 
origin  to  Semitic  poetry ,  they  are  purely  external  ornaments 
easily  adopted  as  an  occasional  practice  into  any  language ,  and 
therefore  of  very  little  consequence  as  showing  an  outside  influence. 

In  the  matter  of  groups  and  strophes  Meyer's  contention  is 
that  the  system  was  new  in  hexameter  verse  (p.  371).  But  as  it 
had  existed  in  other  kinds  of  Latin  verse  before  that  time,  and 
as  he  does  not  show  that  the  Semitic  languages  possess  a  dactylic 
hexameter ,  there  is  certainly  no  justification  for  assuming  this 
outside  influence.  The  fact,  however,  that  in  the  Carmen  Apulo- 
geticum  of  Commodian  there  is  almost  invariably  a  full  sentence- 
pause  at  the  end  of  every  second  line,  is  striking.  Yet ,  strange 
as  this  grouping  of  the  hexameter  is ,  it  is  easy  to  find  other 
Latin  examples  of  it  both  before  and  after  Commodian.  First  of 
all ,  there  are  the  Disticha  Catonis  which  may  not  be  so  old  as 
the  poems  of  Commodian,  though  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  the 
collection  originated  in  a  single  age  or  with  a  single  man,  either 
in  form  or  in  substance.  We  find  the  hexameter  distich  also  in 
a  number  of  the  longer  tomb-inscriptions,  as  for  instance  Biicheler, 
Carm.  Ep.  422,  429,  434,  454  and  512,  Several  of  these  are  as 
early  as  the  second  century.  The  last  one  (CIL  8,  7156)  is,  more- 
over, an  acrostich,  and  in  its  versification  can  well  be  placed 
by  the  side  of  the  poems  of   Commodian  (cf.  Teuff'el  under  Com.). 

The  other  two  points  at  which  Meyer  assumes  the  influence 
of  Semitic  poetry,  namely  the  equality  of  lines  in  respect  to  the 
number  of  syllables  (Silbenzahlung),  and  the  disregard  of  quantity 


—     26     — 

witli  resulting  pronunciation  according  to  accent,  are  really  the 
fundamental  ones,  for  if  his  assumption  is  correct,  there  would  in 
these  cases  be  a  complete  transformation  of  Latin  verse  both  in 
form  and  in  internal  character. 

The  number  of  syllables  in  Commodian  Meyer  finds  varying 
from  13  to  17,  and  neither  he  nor  any  one  else  thinks  that  this 
number  is  due  to  any  other  cause  than  that  Commodian  imitated 
the  classical  hexameter. 

With  the  Psalmus  of  Augustine ,  it  must  be  admitted ,  the 
case  is  somewhat  diiferent.  It  is  not  modeled  after  any  of  the 
commonly  employed  quantitative  metres  ,  and  the  quantity  is  al- 
most completely  disregarded,  so  far  as  the  structure  of  the  verse 
is  concerned.  The  number  of  syllables  in  the  half- lines  of  the 
Psalmus  varies  from  7  to  11  according  to  Meyer,  and  it  is  in  this 
respect  in  open  conflict  with  all  the  other  rhythmical  verse  in  the 
language  from  that  time  on,  with  the  exception  of  that  scanty 
part,  in  which  the  hexameter  is  imitated.  Can  it  then  be  assumed 
that  the  form  of  Augustine's  verse  was  a  sporadic  case  which 
arose  under  the  influence  of  Syrian  church-poetry? 

If  we  look  about  for  a  time  in  Augustine's  life ,  when  he 
could  have  come  into  contact  with  and  have  been  influenced  by 
the  Syrian  manner  of  church-singing,  our  attention  is  naturally 
fixed  upon  the  latter  part  of  his  stay  at  Milan,  and  especially  the 
time  of  his  conversion  to  Christianity.  He  several  times  in  his 
works  refers  to  the  profound  impression  which  the  singing  in  the 
church  made  upon  him.  One  of  the  passages  is  Confessiones  IX,  6, 
where  he  refers  to  the  occasion  of  his  baptism.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  next  chapter  (7)  he  says  that  church  -  singing  had  been  in- 
troduced at  Milan  a  year  before.  The  date  of  Augustine's  baptism 
is  April  25,  387.  Soon  after  this  he  departed  for  Africa  which 
he  did  not  reach  till  the  fall  of  388 ,  on  account  of  the  delay 
caused  by  the  death  of  his  mother.  Till  391  he  lived  in  retirement 
in  Africa.  Then  he  became  presbyter  of  the  church  at  Hippo 
and  two  years  later ,  in  393 ,  six  years  after  his  baptism  ,  wrote 
his  Psalmus  against  the  Donatists. 

Augustine  was  well  acquainted  with  the  metrical  theory  as  it 
was  handed  down  by  grammarians.  He  even  wrote  six  books  De 
Musica  in  which,  of  course,  he  treats  metre  fully,  and  in  the 
conventional  manner.  We  know  of  no  influence  from  a  Syrian 
source  which  could  have  in  any  way  disturbed  his  metrical  prin- 
ciples. For  the  hymns  sung  in  the  church  at  Milan ,  which  pro- 
duced such  a  profound  impression   upon  him ,    were  written   with 


—    27    — 

strict  regard  for  quantity^).  He  was  ignorant  of  Hebrew  (ci,  p.  25) 
and  certainly  equally  ignorant  of  Syrian,  since  that  was  a  lan- 
guage which  was  of  very  much  smaller  consequence  to  him.  We 
know  however  from  the  passage  just  referred  to  that  there  were 
psalmi  abecedarii  in  both  Punic  and  Latin.  In  all  proba- 
bility Augustine  was  acquainted  with  Punic,  that  being  very  like- 
ly the  language  of  many  of  his  flock.  But  of  what  nature 
these  Punic  psalms  were ,  we  know  only  from  what  he  tells  us 
about  their  acrostichs.  As  for  the  Latin  psalms,  they  may  quite 
as  well  have  been  quantitative ,  as  rhythmical ,  indeed  the  pre- 
sumption is  naturally  in  favor  of  the  former  supposition.  But 
even  if  these  other  Latin  psalms  should  have  been  of  the  same 
kind  as  that  of  Augustine,  they  were  in  all  probability  mere  imi- 
tations of  the  latter ,  for  the  way  in  which  he  himself  refers  to 
his  own  psalm,  and  the  explanation  which  he  finds  it  necessary 
to  make  (Retractationes  I,  20  quoted  in  the  note  below),  lead  us 
to  the  conclusion  that  he  is  departing  from  the  beaten  path.  Yet 
even  if  this  were  not  so,  it  would  hardly  be  possible  for  any  one 
in  Augustine's  place  and  with  his  previous  training,  to  neglect 
the  ordinary  rules  of  metre  without  doing  it  consciously  and  pur- 
posely. We  should  expect  him  to  explain  why  he  did  so  un- 
heard-of a  thing  as  to  write  poetry  contrary  to  all  the  rules  of 
versification.  And  fortunately  he  does  make  this  very  explanation, 
but  he  merely  excuses  his  failure  to  employ  a  regular  metre,  by 
expressing  the  fear  that  he  would  in  that  way  be  compelled 
to  use  words  which  would  not  be  understood  by  the  common 
poeple  ^)  The  P  s  a  1  m  u  s  is  of  course,  first  and  last,  a  polemic, 
and  not  a  work  of  art.  Above  all  he  wished  to  reach  the  masses. 
And  to  accomplish  this  purpose,  he  did  what  popular  preachers 
have  always  done,  he  dropped  the  conventional  forms.  This  de- 
parture allowed  him  on  the  one  hand  to  admit  such  language  as  was 
most  easily  understood,  and  on  the  other  hand  attracted  attention 

1)  That  the  hymns  simg  at  Milan  in  380 — 7,  when  Angustiue  was  there, 
were  by  Ambrosins  himself,  is  apparent  from  a  passage  in  his  st-rmon  against 
Auxeutius  preached  during  this  year:  "Hyniuorum  quoque  mcorum  canuinibus 
deceplura  popnlum  ferunt.  Plane  hoc  non  abnuo.  Grande  carmen  istud  est  quo 
nihil  potentius." 

2)  Retractiones  I,  20  -'Volens  etiam  causam  Donatistarum  ad  ipsius  humillimi 
vulgi  et  omnino  imperitorum  atque  idiotarum  notitiam  pervenirc  et  eorum  quantum 
fieri  posset  per  nos  inhaerere  memoriae,  psalmum  qui  eis  cautaretur,  per  latinas 

litteras  feci. Ideo  autem  non   aliquo  carminis  genere    id  fieri  volui,    ne 

me  necessitas  metrica  ad  aliqua  verba  quae  vulgo  minus  sunt  usitata,  com- 
pelleret." 


-    28    - 

by  its  very  novelty,  and  thus  produced  more  rapid  and  decisive 
results,  exactly  the  thing  which  he  would  strive  for  in  his  conflict 
with  the  heretics.  This  explanation  is  not  only  in  accord  with 
the  facts  of  the  case,  but  with  Augustine's  own  words. 

It  will  be  objected  that  this  explanation  does  not  explain  the 
peculiarities  of  the  Psalraus,  namely  the  fact  that  its  lines 
and  half-lines  are  fairly  even  in  length  and  that  they  have  accent- 
ual trochaic  endings.  As  for  the  former  it  is  useless  to  go  to  a 
foreign  language  in  search  of  a  prototype,  when  we  know  that  to 
be  sung  to  the  simplest  of  melodies ,  as  this  no  doubt  was ,  a 
poem  must  have  frequent  repetition  of  similar  parts.  Lewis  (and 
before  him  Ebert,  Allgem.  Gesch.  d.  Lit.  d.  Mittelalters  1,251) 
is  probably  not  far  from  the  right  track  when  he  proposes  to 
draw  a  conclusion  from  the  form  of  the  Psalmus  as  to  the  na- 
ture of  the  music  (Foreign  Sources    of  Mod.  Engl.  Versif.  p.  50). 

It  remains  however  to  set  right  an  impression  which  has  so 
far  existed  as  to  the  nature  of  the  trochaic  cadence  at  the  end  of 
each  half-line.  This  has  simply  been  accepted  as  being  accentual 
without  much  further  inquiry,  Meyer  says  for  instance  (p.  288): 
„Von  Reobachtung  der  Quantitat  ist  auch  im  Schlusse  keine  Rede, 
hochstens  dass  die  zweisilbigen  Schlussworter  mit  langer  vorletzter 
Silbe  bedeutend  zahlreicher  sind  als  die  mit  kurzer."  His  expla- 
nation of  the  cases  where  the  final  word  apparently  has  the  accent 
on  the  antepenult  is  probably  correct.  Nearly  all  of  these  are 
words  like  iudicio,  hodie,  quotidie,  gladium,  in  which  if  the  "i"  be- 
fore the  last  syllable  be  read  as  a  consonant,  the  accent  will  not 
only  be  on  the  penult ,  but  the  latter  will  be  long  by  position. 
But  not  enough  attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  after 
this  is  done,  we  have  only  31  short  penults  left  in  a  total  of  534 
endings.  The  smallness  of  this  number  invites  a  closer  examina- 
tion which  shows  that  the  cadence  both  at  the  end  and  in  the 
middle  of  the  line,  is  rudely  quantitative,  instead  of  being  merely 
accentual.  Of  the  31  cases  of  a  short  penult,  the  short  vowel  is 
in  5  cases  followed  by  another  vowel,  in  10  cases  by  a  sonant,  in 
13  cases  by  a  liquid  and  in  only  3  cases  by  a  mute.  It  is  clear 
that  if  one  is  not  trying  to  be  strict  according  to  the  rules  in 
the  matter  of  quantity,  a  short  vowel  followed  by  another  vowel, 
a  sonant  or  a  liquid  can,  especially  if  it  is  under  the  accent,  with 
a  little  effort  be  made  to  appear  longer  than  the  rules  would 
have  it.  A  mute,  on  the  other  hand,  will  not  permit  this  extension. 
If  we  may  say  so  then,  of  the  31  cases  of  a  short  penult  28  may, 
if  we   take    no   account   of  the  rules    of  prosody,    be   treated   as 


—    29    — 

common.  We  shall  see  later  that  a  practice  of  the  same  kind 
was  followed  in  some  of  the  earliest  rhythmical  hyiims. 

If  it  seems  strange  that  Augustine  should  make  such  a  hold 
departure  from  a  norm  which  he  himself  recognized,  it  should  be 
recalled  that  he  was  an  African  and  no  doubt  quite  accustomed 
to  that  hybrid  style  of  composition  midway  between  prose 
and  poetry  which  we  meet  so  frequently  among  the  inscriptions 
from  that  province.  If  the  strong  opposition  to  the  establishment 
of  an  orthodox  system  of  doctrine  had  continued  longer,  perhaps 
these  beginnings  of  a  new  kind  of  verse  which  we  see  in  Augustine, 
might  have  become  important  for  the  later  development  of  Christian 
poetry  in  Latin.  As  it  was,  the  growing  importance  in  the  West 
of  a  central  ecclesiastical  power  and  a  single  doctrine  ,  and  the 
absorption  by  the  church  of  the  upper  classes  of  the  pagan  popu- 
lation seem  to  have  been  decisive  for  the  future  of  poetic  forms, 
resulting,  as  they  did,  in  the  adoption  of  the  pagan  metres. 

If  a  Semitic  influence  is  not  to  be  assumed  in  the  outward 
structure  of  the  verse  in  rhythmical  poetry ,  much  less  can  we 
assume  such  an  influence  upon  its  internal  character.  Meyer's 
assumption  that,  as  Semitic  poetry  pays  no  attention  to  the  quan- 
tity of  the  syllables,  and  as  Latin  rhythmical  poetry  usually  does 
the  same,  the  one  was  the  cause  of  the  other,  is  a  mere  assertion 
without  any  proof  to  back  it.  He  is  at  pains  to  tell  us  several 
times  (p.  303,  370,  377)  that  the  Latin  verses  in  question,  being 
constructed  without  regard  to  quantity,  were  read  according  to 
the  word -accent.  He  did  not  stop  to  consider,  apparently,  that 
the  change  of  which  he  speaks  would  involve  a  complete  revolution 
in  the  pronunciation  of  Latin.  For  that  is  certainly  what  it 
means  when  we  say  that  whereas  Latin  poetry  had  previously 
taken  account  only  of  quantity,  it  began  through  Semitic  influence 
to  neglect  the  quantity  and  to  be  read  only  according  to  the 
accent  (Meyer  p.  377).  Further  than  that,  Meyer's  assumption 
that  Semitic  poetry  changed  the  character  of  Latin  pronunciation 
through  its  influence  on  Latin  poetry,  is  a  flat  contradiction  of  the 
well-known  usage  of  poets  in  matters  of  pronunciation.  Poetry 
does  not  anticipate  changes  in  pronunciation,  but  often  lags  behind 
when  the  changes  have  been  accepted  elsewhere,  and  occasionally 
does  not  give  up  an  old  pronunciation  for  generations  after  it  has 
disappeared  from  ordinary  speech  ^). 


1)  Compare  the  poetic  pronunciation   of  "wind"  and  of   the  preterite   and 
participial  ending"-ed." 


—     3U     — 

An  illustration  from  a  modern  language  shows  in  a  convincing 
manner  how  untenable  Meyer's  general  proposition  is.  When  the 
new  English  poetry  was  built  up  after  the  Norman  Conquest,  it 
was  done  mainly  in  verse  -  forms  borrowed  from  French ,  which, 
from  an  English  point  of  view,  has  no  accent  to  speak  of.  The 
habits  of  life  and  thought  as  well  as  the  language  of  the  culti- 
vated classes  in  England  bad  all  been  French  for  several  centuries 
before  Chaucer.  The  prospects  for  an  influence  of  the  French 
manner  of  treating  the  accent  in  poetry  were  surely  as  favorable 
as  can  be  imagined,  many  times  more  favorable  than  the  prospects 
for  an  influence  of  Syrian  or  Hebrew  pronunciation  upon  Latin 
had  been;  for  in  the  Latin-speaking  part  of  the  Roman  empire 
the  Syrian  language  was  at  most  spoken  by  a  handful  of  foreign 
residents,  and  even  Hebrew  was  spoken  by  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  poeple  who  were,  moreover,  stubbornly  opposed  to 
Christianity.  And  yet  when  English  poetry  emerged  from  its 
French  influences,  the  various  forms  of  verse  which  it  had  adopted 
were  constructed  according  to  the  stress-accent  no  less  than  the 
old  Germanic  measures  had  been. 

We  must  hold  that  if  any  Semitic  influence  was  exerted  upon 
Latin  poetry,  it  was  slight  and  purely  external  and  confined  to 
such  phases  as  could  easily  appear  in  a  translation;  in  other  words 
that  it  did  not  aff'ect  the  real  structure  of  Latin  verse. 


More  recently  Meyer  has  added  to  his  list  of  proposals 
another  for  the  explanation  of  the  accentual  ending  of  the  line  in 
rhythmic  poetry.  In  a  review  of  Havet's  La  Prose  Metrique  de 
Symmaque  (Gott.  gel.  Anz.  1893) ,  he  states  at  some  length  his 
view  that  accentual  cadences  at  the  ends  of  clauses  and  sentences 
in  prose  grew  out  of  the  previously  existing  quantitative  cadences. 
According  to  his  view  those  endings  in  which  the  accent  and 
quantity  had  coincided  were  continued  as  rhythmical  endings, 
while  the  others  died  out ').  He  ends  by  saying  (p.  26) :  ;,Das  ist 
die  Geschichte  der  rythmischen  lateinischen  Prosa.  In  der  Zeit, 
in  welcher  der  quantitierende  Satzschluss  in  den  accentuierenden 
sich  verwandelte ,  also  in  der  zweiten  Halfte  des  vierten  Jahr- 
hunderts,  hat  nach  meinen  Aufstellungen  die  sog.  rythmische 
Dichtung  der  Lateiner  ihren  Anfang  genommen.  Zwei  Haupt- 
bestandtheile  derselben  habe  ich  gefunden :  in  Caesur  und  Zeilen- 
schluss  wird  ein  bestimmter  Tonfall  der  Accente  beobachtet ,  vor 
diesem   geregelten  Schlusse  wurden   weder  Quantitat  noch  Accent 

1)  For  a  discussion  of  the  cadences  in  prose,  see  Appendix  I. 


—    31    - 

beobaclitet,  sondern  nur  Silben  gezalilt.  Die  obigen  Darlegungen 
zeigen ,  wie  die  Lateiner  jcner  Zeit  dazu  kamen ,  die  Schliisse  in 
den  neuen  Dicbtungsformen  nacb  dem  Tonfall  dcr  Accente  zu 
regeln.  Wie  sie  auf  den  merkwiirdigen  Einfall  gekommen  sind, 
vor  diesen  Schliissen  nur  Silben  zu  ziiblen,  das  babe  icb  friibcr 
scbon  angedeutet  und  wcrde  ich  bald  beweisen.  Damit  wird  die 
Fragc  nacb  dem  Urspi'ung  der  rytbmiscben  lateiniscben  Dicbtweise 
erlcdigt  sein." 

The  cbange  was  in  Meyer's  opinion  due  to  tbe  increased  pro- 
minence of  tbe  accent.  „Quantitat  und  Accent  batten  den  Kampf, 
den  sie  in  alien  Sprachen  ewig  fiibren,  innerbalb  der  lateiniscben 
Spracbe  im  Verlauf  des  3.  und  4.  Jabrbunderts  mit  dem  Ergeb- 
nisse  ausgefocbten,  dass  beim  Sprecben  der  Accent  viel  deutlicber 
bervortrat  als  die  Quantitat  der  einzelnen  Silben"  (p.  19).  This 
is  an  accentual  tbeory  pure  and  simple,  and  is  subject,  witb  sligbt 
modifications,  to  tbe  same  objections  as  its  fellows.  In  tbe  first  place, 
if  tbe  accent  was  prominent  enougb  to  determine  tbe  character  of 
the  ending,  it  is  strange  that  it  should  in  some  of  tbe  metres  have 
allowed  tbe  same  number,  if  not  a  larger  number  of  conflicts  to 
stand  in  the  rest  of  tbe  line  than  bad  stood  there  before  tbe  time 
of  this  assumed  change.  If  tbe  accent  really  acquired  tbe  super- 
iority necessary  to  accomplish  what  Meyer  supposes  it  accom- 
plished in  tbe  end  of  tbe  verse,  it  would  have  made  itself  felt  in 
the  beginning  and  tbe  middle. 

Further,  we  have  on  the  one  band  numerous  rhythmical  hymns 
which  do  not  have  the  accentual  close  any  more  than  the  metrical 
hymns  of  tbe  same  period,  and  on  the  other  hand  there  are  nu- 
merous metrical  hymns  which  have  a  perfect  accentual  close,  even 
though  they  are  constructed  on  the  principle  of  quantity.  That 
it  is  possible  to  write  poetry  in  which  consistent  attention  is 
paid  to  both  accent  and  quantity,  is  perhaps  proved  by  tbe 
clever  experiments  of  Tennyson,  but  whether  such  a  method  of 
versification  could  ever  become  an  extensive  practice,  and  that 
in  the  Dark  Ages ,  is  rather  more  than  questionable.  But  even 
if  we  admit  the  possibility  of  such  a  practice  becoming  general, 
the  small  regard  in  which  rhythmical  versification  was  commonly 
held  by  metrical  poets  (pp.  68—9),  would  hardly  allow  anyone 
capable  of  writing  metrical  hymns,  to  choose  voluntarily  to  adopt 
an  element  which  he  felt  to  be  peculiar  to  rhythmic  verse.  The 
tables  of  conflict  between  accent  and  ictus ,  moreover ,  lead  us  to 
conclude  that  tbe  movement  toward  the  avoidance  of  conflict  at  tbe 
end  of  the   line  was  native   to  quantitative  verse   in  Latin,    since 


-     32    — 

it  bad  set  in  long  before  rhythmical  hymns  were  written.  The 
tendency  is  indeed  as  decided  before  the  time  of  Ambrosius  as 
after  it. 


Conflicts    of  Accent   and   Ictus    in   the    Quantitative 
Iambic  Dimeter. 


number 

of 
verses. 

Nun 

iber. 

Perce 

itage. 

first  2  foet. 

last  2  feet 

first  2  feet. 

last  2  feet. 

Classical  period   (A  1) 

292 

77 

248 

24- 

76  + 

Time  of  Ambrosius  (A2) 

1014 

365 

480 

43  + 

57- 

Sedulius  to  Bede  (A  3) 

740 

338 

155 

69- 

31  + 

Carolingian  period  (A4) 

344 

215 

75 

74  + 

26- 

Perhaps  the  most  objectionable  feature  of  the  theory  is  the 
mechanical  patching  up  of  a  verse  out  of  two  such  widely  sepa- 
rated and  uncertain  elements  as  the  syllabic  principle  of  the  Sem- 
itic languages  for  the  first  part  of  the  verse,  and  Latin  accent- 
ual pronunciation  for  the  end.  Such  a  method  of  explanation  is 
hardly  admissible  as  a  last  resort,  but  is  not  to  be  thought  of  in 
the  presence  of  the  fact  that  side  by  side  with  the  various  stages 
of  development  in  the  rhythmical  measures  there  are  contemporary 
stages  of  development  in  the  metrical  form  which  show  the  same 
peculiarities  in  the  relation  between  accent  and  ictus  in  all  parts 
of  the  verse. 


Trochaic  Popular  Verses  of  the  Classical  Period. 

The  earliest  specimens  of  popular  verse  which  have  been  con- 
sidered in  close  connection  with  the  later  rhythmical  poetry,  are 
a  small  number  of  trochaic  tetrameters  and  septenarii,  mostly 
found  in  Suetonius'  Lives  of  the  Caesars.  They  have  been  adduced 
as  examples  of  popular  poetry  par  excellence,  and  much  reli- 
ance has  been  put  upon  them  by  the  champions  of  the  accentual 
theory.  These  lines  do,  as  a  rule,  show  no  conflict  between  accent 
and  ictus.  At  the  same  time,  however,  the  great  bulk  of  them, 
in  fact  all  but  two  later  and  irregular  specimens  in  Vopiscus' 
Vita  Aureliani,  show  no  greater  violation  of  quantity  than  that 
of  allowing  the  choice  of  long  or  short  in  all  theses  except  the 
last.  In  the  arses  they  have  everywhere  either  a  long  or  two 
shorts.  This  shows  that  they  are  not  rhythmical  but  follow  quan- 
titative rules. 

If  we  leave  out  of  consideration  for  the  present  the  irregular 
lines  in  Vopiscus ,  these  verses  may  be  roughly  divided  into  two 
classes,  w^hich  differ  from  each  other  in  several  respects. 

Class  I.  The  one  class  of  verses  avoids  hiatus,  but  also, 
if  we  allow  an  easy  synezesis  in  a  few  instances,  avoids  resolution 
of  long  syllables,  and  has  almost  perfect  accord  of  accent  and 
ictus.     The  verses  are 

1.  Suet.  lul.  49. 

Caesar  Gallias  subegit,  Nicomedes  Caesarem ; 
Ecce  Caesar  nunc  triumphat  qui  subegit  Galliam, 
Nicomedes  non  triumphat  qui  subegit  Caesarem. 

2.  Suet.  lul.  51. 

Urbani,  servate  uxores,  moechum  calvom  adducimus. 
Aurum  in  Grallia  effutuisti,  hie  sumpsisti  mutuom. 

3.  Suet.  lul.  80. 

Gallos  Caesar  in  triumphum  ducit,  idem  in  curiam; 
Galli  bracas  deposuerunt,  latum  clavom  sumpserunt. 

3 


—    34    — 

4.  Marius  Plotius  (Keil.  GL.  VI,  461). 

Postquam  Crassus  carbo  factus,  Carbo  crassus  factus  est. 

5.  Velleius  Paterculus  II,  67. 

De  germanis,  non  de  Gallis,  duo  triumphant  consules. 

6.  Suet.  Caligula  6. 

Salva  Roma,  salva  patria,  salvus  est  Grermanicus. 

7.  Suet.  Galba  6. 

Disce,  miles,  militari,  Galba  est,  non  (raetulicus. 
Class    II.      Different    from    the    verses   just   mentioned    and 
showing   cases   of  conflict   between    accent   and  ictus ,    as   well   as 
numerous  resolutions  of  long  syllables,  are  these : 

A.  Porphyr.  ad  Horat.  Epp.  I,  1,62. 

Rex  erit  qui  recte  faciet,  qui  non  faciet  non  erit. 

B.  Dio  Cassius  43,  23  —  Teufiel,  Gesch.  d.  rom.  Lit.  11,2. 
Plecteris  si  recte  facies,  si  non  facies  rex  eris. 

C.  Porphyr.  ad  Horat.  Epp.  II,  3,  417. 

Habeat  scabiem  quisquis  ad  me  venerit  novissimus, 

D.  Schol.  ad  luvenal.  V,  3. 

Aliud  scriptum  habet  Sarmentus,  aliud  populus  voluerat. 
Digna  dignis ;  sic  Sarmentus  habeat  crassas  compedes. 
Rustici,  ne  nihil  agatis,  aliquis  Sarmentum  alliget. 

E.  Suet.  lul.  80. 

Brutus  quia  reges  eiecit,  consul  primus  factus  est; 
Hie  quia  consules  eiecit,  rex  postremo  factus  est. 
To  these  may   be  added,    though  no    doubt    belonging   to    an 
earlier  age  : 

F.  GeU.  Praef.  19. 

Nil  cum  fidibus  graculost,  nihil  cum  amaracino  sui. 
The  same  form  is  further   found  in  the  scrawls   on  the  walls 
of  Pompeii. 

G.  Bucheler,  Carm.  Epigr.  230.  CIL  IV,  1830  add.  p.  217. 
Futuitur  cunnus  [piljossus  multo  melius  [qu]am  glaber ; 
E[ad]em  continet  vaporem  et  eadem  v[ell]it  mentulam. 

H.  Biich.  C.  E.  231.  CIL  IV,  1939. 

—  fueere  quondam  Vibii  opulentissumi , 

Non  ideo  tenuerunt  in  manu  sceptrum  pro  mutunio 
Itidem,  quod  tu  factitas  cottidie  in  manu  penem  tenes. 

L    Biich.  C.  E.  232.  CIL  IV,  1234. 

Pupaque  bela  is,  tibi  me  misit  tuus  es(t) :  vale. 
Cf  also  under  Biich.  C.  E.  233. 
The  question  which  of  these  two  classes  represents  the  usual 

popular    manner ,    is     not    so    hard   to    answer    as    it   may    seem 


—    35    — 

at  first  sight.  Of  the  verses  of  the  first  class  we  are  told  explic- 
itly in  the  case  of  nos.  1,  2  and  5,  that  they  were  sung  by  the 
soldiers  following  the  triumphal  car  of  their  general.  Of  no.  7 
it  is  said  that  it  spread  instantly  through  the  camp  (statimque 
per  castra  iactatum  est)  when  the  new  commander  gave  the  first 
example  of  his  strictness  the  day  after  his  arrival.  The  sentiment 
is  much  the  same  as  in  the  case  of  the  songs  sung  in  the  triumphal 
procession  and  it  is,  without  doubt,  like  them,  a  true  specimen  of 
the  soldier  song,  though  we  can  not  be  sure  whether  it  also  was 
sung  on  the  march  or  not.  Of  the  occasion  of  the  use  of  no.  4 
we  know  nothing.  It  is  worth  noticing,  however,  that  in  its  sen- 
timent and  the  form  which  the  thought  takes ,  it  has  much  in 
common  with  one  of  the  soldier  songs  already  spoken  of  (no.  1). 
In  the  case  of  no.  6  we  are  told  that  the  pocple  of  the  city  sang 
it  in  a  chorus  heard  on  all  sides ,  as  they  hurried  to  the  Capitol 
by  night  at  the  report  of  good  news  about  the  health  of  German- 
icus.  Of  the  lines  under  no.  3  we  are  only  told  *'et  ilia  vulgo 
canebantur."  From  the  passage  that  immediately  precedes,  we 
should  judge  that  the  poeple  sang  these  verses  to  show  their 
dissatisfaction  with  Caesar.  There  are  two  possible  views  of  the 
origin  of  these  verses.  They  were  either  sung  by  the  spectators 
at  the  Gallic  triumph  as  an  answer  to  the  song  of  Caesar's  sol- 
diers ,  or  they  were  composed  by  other  soldiers  of  Caesar  in  the 
triumphs  immediately  succeeding  that  over  the  Gauls  ^).  In  either 
case,  expressing   exactly   the    strong  feeling    of  dissatisfaction   on 


1)  By  the  Gauls  whom  Caesar  led  "in  curiam,"  probably  the  Transpadane 
Gauls  are  meant  whom  he  admitted  to  citizenship.  In  that  case  "Gallos  in  tri- 
umphum  ducit"  might  refer  to  his  legions  which  were  raised  or  recruited  in 
Hither  Gaul.  Or  it  might  refer  to  captives  from  Farther  Gaul  that  graced  his 
triumph.  In  the  latter  case  no  distinction  would  be  made  between  the  two  kinds 
of  Gauls,  but  that  was  natural  enough  with  the  aristocratic  Roman  vagabond,  to 
whom  both  alike  were  barbarians  when  his  own  exclusive  rights  were  at  stake. 
The  song  would  then  express  the  feeling  aroused  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  city 
at  seeing  the  prominent  part  foreigners  were  beginning  to  play  in  the  government. 

There  are  two  circumstances  which  point  to  the  Gallic  triumph  as  the  date: 
1.  The  present  tense  "ducit  in  triumphum";  2.  The  mere  fact  of  the  reference  to 
the  triumph.  The  bestowal  of  the  citizenship  and  the  right  to  membership  in 
the  senate  had  occurred  several  years  before  the  triumph,  to  be  sure  (note  also 
the  perfect  tense  in  the  second  line),  but  that  was  a  fact  that  was  ever  before 
the  eyes  of  the  populace;  that  particular  triumph,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a 
matter  of  mere  temporary  interest,  and  its  details  would  very  quickly  fade  from 
the  memory,  all  the  more  so  as  it  was  directly  followed  in  the  same  month  by 
three  other  triumphs,  and  not  so  long  a  time  after  by  a  fifth  (Suet.  lul.  37).    If 

3* 


—    36    — 

the  part  of  the  pocple,  they  would  easily  become  current  and  remain 
alive  for  a  considerable  time. 

So  far  then  as  we  have  any  knowledge  of  the  occasions  on 
which  the  verses  of  the  first  class  mentioned  above  had  their 
origin ,  they  all  agree  in  this :  they  were  in  each  case  sung  in 
chorus  by  a  large  number  of  poeple  in  close  touch  with  one  another, 
and  whose  feelings  had  in  some  way  been  aroused  and  directed 
to  a  common  object.  In  addition  to  this,  of  the  six  examples 
about  which  we  have  any  circumstantial  knowledge,  four  were 
sung  by  soldiers  or  citizens  in  motion  toward  a  common  goal,  and 
a  fifth  (no.  3)  was  in  all  probability  at  least  directly  called  forth 
by  a  procession  of  this  kind.  Four  of  the  six  were  certainly 
sung  by  soldiers  and  a  fifth  may  have  been.  And  the  one  which 
was  perhaps  not  sung  on  the  march  (no.  7),  has  the  same  charac- 
teristics as  those  which  were ,  and  therefore  helps  to  show 
that  there  was  very  likely  a  peculiar  manner  of  composition  em- 
ployed in  soldier  songs.  We  notice  the  same  peculiarity  when 
we  compare  our  own  soldier  songs  with  other  songs  —  everything 
of  the  kind  that  originates  with  soldiers  necessarily  has  a  strong 
marching  rhythm,  which  is  nothing  more  than  a  relatively  greater 
stress  on  the  syllables  that  bear  the  ictus.  Is  it  then  strange, 
that  all  soldier  songs  in  Latin  should  have  harmony  of  accent 
and  ictus? 

The  metrical  form  of  the  two  songs  which  were  not,  or  may 
not  have  been  sung  by  soldiers  (no.  3  and  6),  is  likewise  easy  to 
explain.  If  the  first  conjecture  in  the  case  of  no.  3  is  correct, 
these  verses  are  simply  a  sort  of  answer  or  echo  to  the  marching 
songs  of  the  soldiers,  or  at  any  rate  were  influenced  by  the  occa- 
sion and  caught  the  rhythm  of  the  march.  On  the  other  hand, 
that  the  song  of  a  crowd  of  people  moving  along  in  the  night 
with  a  common  feeling  and  purpose,  as  is  the  case  of  the  German- 
icus  song  (no.  6),  should  fall  into  the  marching  rhythm  of  its 
own  accord,  would  not  be  strange,  if  we  leave  entirely  out  of 
account  the  fact  that  those  most  concerned  about  Grermanicus  and 
most  likely  to  start  a  demonstration  like   that  described   by  Sue- 


we  adopt  this  view,  we  should  owe  this  song  to  the  "licentia"  of  the  crowd  that 
watched  the  procession. 

A  second  interpretation  is,  however,  possible,  that  is,  that  the  song  originated 
with  the  Roman  soldiers  in  some  one  of  the  triumphs  just  spoken  of,  which  close- 
ly followed  the  one  over  the  Gauls.  Being  Roman  citizens  of  long  standing 
themselves,  these  soldiers  would  of  course  have  the  same  prejudice  against  the 
admission  of  outsiders  to  the  citizenship  that  the  Roman  populace  had. 


—    37     — 

i<5piius  (Caligula  6)  and  Tacitus  (Annales  II,  82),  would  be  precise- 
ly the  old  veterans  who  liad  served  under  him  and  wore  now 
spending  their  last  days  in  idleness  at  the  capital. 

The  other  point  in  which  the  first  class  of  popular  verses 
differs  from  the  second,  is  that  the  former  have  practically  no 
resolution  of  long  syllables.  This  is  only  another  result  of  their 
origin  and  use.  It  is  inconvenient  and  confusing  for  a  large 
number  of  people  to  sing  or  shout  anything  in  unison  which  does 
not  have  a  regular  alternation  of  stressed  and  unstressed  syllables. 
Any  one  will  understand  this  who  has  compared  the  clear-cut, 
satisfactory  rendering  of  a  simple  "college  yell"  of  even  rhythm 
with  the  confusion  produced  by  one  which  undertakes  to  convey 
an  idea  in  every-day  English  and  thus  makes  necessary  an  irreg- 
ular succession  of  accented  and  unaccented  syllables. 

If  we  now  examine  the  verses  of  the  second  class,  which  have 
conflict  of  accent  and  ictus  and  a  considerable  number  of  resolutions, 
we  find  the  conditions  of  the  first  class  largely  or  entirely  lacking. 
E  was  found  written  upon  the  statue  of  Brutus.  This  and  the 
Pompeian  inscriptions  were  certainly  never  shouted  or  sung  in 
public  by  a  large  body  of  people,  if  indeed  any  of  them  were  ever 
spoken  at  all.  Children's  songs  like  A  and  C  and  the  restored 
parody  B,  naturally'  lack  the  force  of  feeling  and  earnestness,  the 
movement  toward  a  common  end,  and  above  all  the  regularity  of 
movement  necessary  to  make  their  rhythm  severely  regular  or 
strictly  accentual.  The  naturalness  of  this  difference  will  be 
evident  to  any  one  that  compares  the  Mother  Goose  rhj^mcs 
with  the  soldier  songs  in  our  own  language.  F  is  in  all  likelihood 
a  century  or  more  older  than  the  Caesar  songs.  It  has  the 
manner  of  the  old  dramatists  —  Baehrens  thinks  it  is  "fortasse 
ex  Naevii  ludis."     Gellius  calls  it  "vetus  adagium." 

The  only  one  whose  origin  has  any  similarity  to  that  of 
the  first  class ,  is  D ,  Schol.  luv.  V,  3.  It  is  directed  against  a 
single  person  and  the  tone  of  criticism  in  it  is  much  the  same  as 
in  the  soldier  songs.  On  the  other  hand,  the  circumstances  were 
entirely  difi'erent.  In  the  case  under  discussion  the  speakers  were 
no  doubt  seated  or  standing  —  "per  ludos  quibus  primum  (in) 
XIIII  ordinibus  sedit,  haec  a  populo  in  eum  dicta  sunt"  —  and 
not,  as  in  the  case  of  the  other  songs,  moving  with  a  common 
purpose  to  a  common  end.  From  the  circumstances  it  is  quite 
certain  that  the  verses  did  not  originate  with  soldiers.  They 
smack  rather  of  the  sentiments  of  the  petted  and  idle  rabble  of 
the   city.      Then,  it   is   not   probable    that    any   large    number   of 


-     38     - 

people  who  were  well  acquainted,  or  even  knew  each  other  by 
sight,  would  be  within  easy  speaking  or  hearing  distance  of  each 
other  at  the  games.  And  finally,  these  verses  were  spoken  (dicta), 
not  sung,  as  the  others  were.  We  are  not,  therefore,  surprised 
that  they  show  cases  both  of  conflict  and  of  resolution. 

Conclusions.  —  The  conclusions  we  come  to,  then,  are 
these.  The  popular  poetry  of  classical  times  was  quantitative, 
that  is,  the  arses  were  long.  The  harmony  between  accent  and 
ictus  was  not  a  characteristic  of  popular  poetry,  but  of  a  single 
branch  of  it,  namely  of  the  soldiers'  songs  and  of  others  arising  under 
like  conditions,  and  was  the  result  of  peculiar  circumstances.  The 
same  circumstances  seem  to  have  operated  to  prevent  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  long  syllables.  The  usual  form  of  the  popular  trochaic 
tetrameter  appears  to  have  been  something  like  the  old  comic  form 
of  this  verse.  Corroborative  evidence  of  the  latter  conclusion  is 
furnished  in  abundance  by  the  later  iambic  and  trochaic  tomb- 
inscriptions  ,  the  shorter  and  more  popular  forms  of  which  are 
invariably  composed  in  this  loose  form  (cf.  Biich.  C.  E.  nos.  234 — 247 
and  117—211)0. 


1)  The  two  late  examples  of  popular  songs  (Vopiscus,  Vita  Aureliani,  6), 
wbich  are  usually  considered  in  this  connection,  need  liberal  padding  before  they 
can  pose  as  trochaic  tetrameters  or  septenarii  even  of  a  degenerate  kind.  If  we 
accept  the  necessary  additions  usually  made,  they  show  externally  about  the  same 
characteristics  as  the  earlier  soldier  songs  except  that  one  of  them  has  two  short 
arses  and  the  other  one  has  several  resolutions.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind,  how- 
ever, that  they  are  not  really  genuine  soldier  songs,  though  they  have  something 
of  the  old  military  form.  They  are  really  "ballistia  et  saltatiunculae"  and  re- 
present a  class  of  their  own,  which  springs  from  circumstances  similar  to  those 
of  the  soldier  songs  in  so  far  only  as  the  song  is  accompanied  by  bodily  move- 
ment. Aside  from  the  mere  fact  of  the  movement,  however,  they  have  in  common 
with  the  soldier  songs  neither  the  regularity  nor  the  movement  toward  a  common 
end  of  a  multitude  actuated  by  strong  feeling.  The  short  arses  can  be  duplicated 
from  the  inscriptions  of  the  period ,  and  will  not  cause  us  to  hesitate  when  we 
consider  that  the  verses  are  somewhat  later  than  Commodiau. 


The  Inscriptions  and  Conimotlian. 

As  is  well  known,  iambic  and  trochaic  metres  arc  represented 
in  Latin  by  freer  and  stricter  imitations  of  Greek  models ,  the 
former  in  the  republican  drama  and  Phaedrus,  the  latter  in  all 
the  other  poetry  from  the  time  of  Catullus  on.  The  iambic  tri- 
meter (senarius)  as  well  as  the  catalectic  trochaic  tetrameter 
(septenarius)  exists  abundantly  in  both  the  strict  and  the  free 
form.  Of  the  iambic  dimeter ,  however ,  there  is  barely  a  trace 
here  and  there  in  the  drama.  This  metre  was  first  employed  to 
any  considerable  extent,  so  far  as  we  know,  by  Laevius,  who  pro- 
bably belongs  to  the  generation  preceding  Cicero.  The  score  of 
iambic  dimeters  found  among  his  fragments  (Baehrens,  FPR),  show 
no  affinity  in  their  structure  to  the  verse  of  the  dramatists.  They 
regularly  avoid  a  long  syllable  in  the  second  thesis  of  the  dipody, 
and  very  rarely  admit  a  resolution,  that  is,  they  follow  only  the 
strict  form.  And  the  same  statement  is  true  of  all  the  subsequent 
uses  of  this  metre. 

The  treatment  of  these  three  kinds  of  verse  in  the  inscrip- 
tions corresponds  closely  to  that  in  literature.  For  it  goes 
without  saying  that  the  imitation  of  a  metre  means  its  imitation 
as  a  whole ,  and  not  the  formation  of  a  new  metre ,  a  dimeter  or 
a  trimeter  for  instance ,  out  of  imitated  elements ,  or  dipodies, 
either  free  or  strict. 

So  we  find  that  the  inscriptional  dimeters,  like  their  relatives 
and  prototypes  in  literature,  show  very  rare  cases  of  resolution 
and  equally  rare  cases  of  the  employment  of  a  long  syllable  in 
the  second  thesis  of  the  dipody.  In  37  dimeters  belonging  to  a 
relatively  early  period  (Bitch.  C.  E.  217 — 221),  there  are  only  five 
cases  in  which  the  second  thesis  is  long.  Of  the  two  later  exam- 
ples (Biich.  C.  E.  222  and  223) ,  the  former  shows  four  long  syl- 
lables in  this  location  in  its  eight  verses,  and  the  latter  four  short 
syllables  under  the  ictus  in  five  verses.  But  even  these  late 
specimens  do  not  show  any  frequency  of  resolution.  Number  223, 
in  fact,  which  is  purely  rhythmical,  has  none  at  all. 


-    40     - 

Of  the  180  or  more  inscriptions  in  iambic  trimeter,  the  vast 
majority  show  no  regard  whatever  for  short  theses,  except  in  the 
penultimate  syllable  of  the  verse,  and  nearly  all  have  more  or 
less  resolution.  Generally  speaking,  there  are  three  classes  of 
iambic  trimeters  (senarii):  1.  Those  following  the  early  dramatic 
style,  with  an  "anceps"  in  every  thesis  except  the  last,  and  with 
full  sway  of  resolution;  2.  Those  which  show  regard  for  strict 
rule  in  both  arses  and  theses,  and  very  seldom  allow  a  resolution; 
3.  A  development,  or  rather,  corruption  of  the  second  class,  with 
infrequent  resolution,  but  waning  regard  for  quantity,  especially 
in  thesis.  In  general  it  is  the  larger  and  more  pretentious  in- 
scriptions like  Biicheler  19,  20,  104  and  111,  that  show  very  few 
or  no  violations  of  the  strict  rules  of  quantity  and  at  the  same 
time  avoid  resolutions.  And  it  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  nearly 
all  of  the  popular  tomb-inscriptions  of  a  line  or  two  each  (Biicheler 
117 — 211),  belong  to  the  first  of  the  three  classes  mentioned. 
When  taken  together  these  two  observations  indicate  that  the 
popular  conception  of  an  iambic  verse  was  the  senarius  as  it  was 
handed  down  by  comedy,  while  the  use  of  the  newer  and  stricter 
form  remained  more  or  less  confined  to  the  cultivated  classes. 

Of  the  inscriptions  in  trochaic  tetrameter  (septenarii) ,  those 
from  Pompeii  have  already  been  mentioned  in  another  connection 
(pp.  34  &  37).  They  have  the  loose  comic  form.  The  same  is  also 
true,  as  in  the  case  of  the  iambic  trimeter,  of  the  shorter  trochaic 
tomb-inscriptions.  Correct  examples  according  to  the  strict  form, 
with  few  or  no  resolutions,  are  furnished  by  three  inscriptions  of 
a  religious  or  semi-religious  character  (Biicheler  227,  228,  229). 

The  thing  that  interests  us  for  the  present,  however,  is  not 
so  much  the  fact  that  certain  classes  of  the  people  used  certain 
kinds  of  metre,  for  the  early  comic  form  can  not  possibly  have 
been  the  model  of  the  rhythmical  church  poetry,  nor  can  it  even 
have  had  any  appreciable  influence  upon  it.  The  strong  tendency 
of  church  poetry  to  follow  the  models  already  existing  in  its  field, 
is  well  known.  Poets  in  other  fields  may  originate  or  introduce 
new  poetical  forms  with  much  greater  freedom,  and  yet  we  know 
how  rarely  even  this  has  come  about,  especially  in  Latin  litera- 
ture. What  shall  we  say  then  of  religious  poets  who  are  strictly 
confined  in  form  as  well  as  in  thought? 

The  actual  practice  of  the  early  Latin  hymnists  in  this  par- 
ticular is  exceedingly  clear  and  convincing.  Ambrosius  wrote  the 
first  metrical  hymns  which  we  certainly  know  to  have  existed, 
and  which   were    extensively   used  in   the   church.     He  employed 


__    41    - 

the  iambic  dimeter  of  strict  form.  It  is  snrely  not  a  mere  coin- 
cidence that  the  vast  majority  of  the  hymns  for  three  or  four 
centuries  were  written  in  this  metre.  On  the  other  hand  the 
iambic  trimeter  was  very  little  used  in  the  hymns,  and  then  only 
in  its  strict  form,  though  the  inscriptions  show  it  to  have  been 
quite  frequently  employed  by  the  people.  The  trochaic  tetrameter, 
as  far  as  the  inscriptions  show ,  was  much  less  of  a  favorite. 
Still  it  was  quite  extensively  used  in  the  hymns. 

Besides  this,  the  form  of  all  these  metres  as  we  find  them  in 
the  early  hymns,  shows  that  they  have  nothing  in  common  with 
their  popular  form  in  the  inscriptions.  In  the  first  place ,  the 
iambic  and  trochaic  verses  of  these  hymns  are  strict  in  their 
treatment  of  the  theses,  leaving  but  one  in  each  dipody  undeter- 
mined. In  the  second  place,  the  most  distinctive  feature  of  the 
popular  form  of  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses,  which  they  firmly 
retained  as  we  have  seen,  was  their  wide  liberty  of  resolution. 
In  the  strict  form,  the  iambic  dimeter  together  with  the  other 
metres  examined,  admits  of  resolution,  though  very  sparingly. 
But  as  soon  as  this  measure  was  employed  in  hymns  designed  for 
the  use  of  the  church,  we  find  even  this  restricted  liberty  aban- 
doned. Ausonius,  for  instance,  has  54  resolutions  in  398  dimeters 
and  Prudentius  has  23  in  400,  but  Ambrosius  has  but  two  in  a 
total  of  188  lines,  both  occurring  in  the  same  hymn,  "veni  re- 
demptor  gentium,"  and  later  hymns  as  a  rule  avoided  them  as 
much  as  possible  (cf.  Appendix  II).  The  same  is  true  of  the 
trochaic  tetrameter,  with  the  difi'erence  that  the  change  is  less 
marked,  because  the  strict  form  of  this  metre  never  admitted  re- 
solution even  to  the  same  extent  as  the  iambic  metres.  All  this 
is  just  the  opposite  of  what  we  should  expect,  if  we  were  looking 
for  the  influence  of  the  current  popular  form  of  iambic  and  trochaic 
verse  upon  the  hymns  of  the  church. 

Though  we  can  not ,  therefore ,  get  much  direct  information 
from  the  inscriptions ,  of  the  course  and  cause  of  the  changes 
which  these  hymns  underwent ,  we  may  still  feel  confident  that 
the  sporadic  and  individual  departures  from  quantity  which  the 
inscriptions  show ,  will  throw  much  light  on  the  nature  of  those 
changes,  containing  as  they  do,  in  a  great  variety  of  compositions, 
the  germs  of  the  later  development. 

In  making  the  tables  that  are  to  follow,  the  plan  has  been 
to    include   every    thing   that   could  be    scanned^),    omitting   only 

1)  It  will  be  necessary  to  say  a  word  about  the  composition  of  the  tables.  The 
task  is  made  difficult  in  the  case  of  many  inscriptions  on  account  of  the  changes 


-    42    — 

those  Inscriptions ,  or  lines ,  or  parts  of  lines  where  the  author 
either  had  no  definite  conception  of  the  metre  employed  or  made 
no  effort  to  maintain  its  structure.  Such  cases  it  would.be  man- 
ifestly unfair  to  include ,  since  they  would  show  nothing  as  to 
the  handling  of  the  metre.  With  these  exceptions^),  the  tables 
of  unmetrical  scansion  from  the  inscriptions  include  all  the  iambic 
trimeters  (senarii),  iambic  dimeters  and  trochaic  tetrameters  (sep- 
tenarii)  found  in  Biicheler,  Carmina  Epigraphica;    further,    all  the 


that  were  very  often  introduced  between  the  time  when  the  verses  were  originally 
composed,  and  the  time  when  they  were  cut  into  the  stone.  These  irregularities 
are,  of  course,  especially  frequent  in  the  inscriptions  on  tomb-stones,  and  are  of 
several  kinds. 

First,  they  may  be  due  to  the  workman  who  carved  the  stone.  In  such 
cases  they  are  usually  mistakes  in  spelling,  transposition  of  words  or  their  trans- 
fer to  another  line,  the  use  of  one  word  tor  another  of  similar  meaning,  &c.  Or 
the  mistakes  may  be  due  to  the  person  who  had  the  carving  done.  This  class 
of  cases  is  very  prolific  in  troublesome  difficulties.  Confusion  is  usually  caused 
by  adapting  some  lines  that  originally  belonged  to  another  tomb  or  were  taken 
from  some  other  source ,  and  changing  them  not  only  to  suit  the  name  of  the 
person  on  whose  tomb  they  were  to  stand,  but  frequently  also  to  fit  the  different 
circumstances.  Being  done  by  unskillful  people  who  had  little  command  of  lan- 
guage and  still  less  control  over  the  metre,  the  result  is  what  one  might  expect. 
There  are  all  grades  of  changes  and  it  is  a  fortunate  case  when  a  simple  addi- 
tion was  made  in  the  middle  or  at  the   end  of  the  verse. 

Frequently  a  person  seems  to  have  had  put  upon  the  stone  something  he 
recalled  inaccurately  from  memory.  Or  a  person  with  some  knowledge,  appa- 
rently, of  metrical  rules,  will  in  his  alterations  avoid  faults  in  quantity,  but  will 
change  the  length  of  the  line,  sometimes  making  the  he.xameter,  for  instance,  five, 
but  more  often  seven,  and  occasionally  even  eight  feet  long. 

While  most  of  the  difficulties  enco  untered  arise  from  one  or  the  other  of  the 
sources  mentioned,  instances  are  not  wanting  where  persons  of  the  kind  just 
mentioned  will  attempt  an  original  composition,  to  classify  which  often  taxes  the 
imagination  severely. 

1)  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  passages  which  have  been  excluded : 

Inscriptions  in  iambic  trimeter  (senarius)  —  Biicheler  C.  E.  G8,  72*,  74,  Tl^-^-^, 
80*,  85S  86S  92»2,  95,  lOl'',  102i,  107S  108^  llO^-*,  120S  125^  134^,  141',  158»-8, 
172*,  180^  186,  190^  191,  206. 

Inscriptions  in  hexameter  — 
I  century  A.  D.  —  Bucheler  C.  E.  375",  SGTS 

II  century  A.D.  —  Biicheler  C.  E.  4743-*,  476' ^  479. 

III  century  A.D.  —  Biicheler  C.  E.  496=,  497'-3,  508,  51P•»•^  512^  513'-", 
516*«,  5273*,  5414.10^  5491^  5531^  5551^  5551,  557,  558,  560A».  560C^  565«, 
bdV-^*,  5686. 

IV  century  A.D.  —  Biicheler  C.  E.  575»,  579',  593*-3,  594,  596'*«',  5979, 
598»,  604,  607«,  608»,  613'-»-««9,  621,  622",  623^  624,  626,  627,  629'-8, 
641»,  642S  651,  653',  658',  661»,  673'". 


—    43    — 

hexameter  inscriptions  of  the  first  four  centuries  of  our  era  accord- 
ing to  Bilcheler's  arrangement,  as  follows  : 

First  century  351—421,  349  tf.  (Pompeian),  806. 

Second  century  249—50,  270—2,  422—86. 

Third  century  251-60,  273-7,  343—4,  487—569,  656,  731. 

Fourth  century  261—8,  278—87,  301—10,  325-30,  570-655, 
657—79. 

In  the  case  of  Commodian,  the  first  275  lines  of  the  Carmen 
Apologeticum. 

The  unmetrical  syllables  have  been  divided  into  five  classes 
according  to  the  place  in  the  word  where  they  occur:  1.  Final; 
2.  Directly  before  the  accent;  3.  Under  the  accent;  4.  Directly 
after  the  accent  (except  final  syllables);  5.  The  remainder,  being 
syllables   more  than  one  place  before  the  accent. 

I.  The  first  table  includes  all  metrical  faults  whether  (A)  a 
short  for  a  long  in  arsis ,  or  (B)  a  long  (or  two  shorts)  for  one 
short  in  thesis  ,  or  (C)  a  short  for  a  long  in  thesis  (this  in  the 
hexameter  only). 


I 

II 

TTT 

TV 

Total 

Com- 

troch. 

Total 

A.     Short  for  long 

cent. 

cent. 

cent. 

cent. 

hex. 

mod- 

la. 
trim. 

la. 
dim. 

te- 

ia.  & 

in  arsis. 

hex.     hex. 

hex. 

hex.   inscr. 

ian. 

trara. 

tro. 

Final 

9 

44 

73 

48    174 

136 

21 

4 

25 

Before  Accent   .     . 

4 

8 

12 

24 

18 

8 

H 

Under         „         .     . 

2 

6 

19 

27 

54 

20 

17 

1 

1 

19 

After          „         .     . 

1'       2 

1 

5 

9 

5 

3 

1 

4 

Remainder    .      .     . 

1 

2 

5 

7 

6 

1 

1 

Long  for  short 
in  thesis. 


C.    Short  for  long 
in  thesis. 


Final 

11 

56 

154 

82    303 

243 

306 

7 

22 

335 

Before  Accent   .     . 

6 

19 

20      45 

93 

104 

2 

6 

112 

Under        „        .     . 

2 

16 

31 

22      71 

114 

49 

1 

7 

57 

After         „        .     . 

1 

Remainder     .     .     . 

2 

8 

4 

141 

30 

7 

7 

Final 

5 

9 

17 

31 

27 

Before  Accent   .    . 

5 

10 

21 

36 

14 

Under        „        .     . 

2 

3 

10 

10 

25 

11 

After         „        .     . 

4 

4 

Remainder     .    .    . 

2 

21 

1 

—    44    — 


II.  In  the  second  table  the  shorts  for  longs  in  arsis  and  the 
longs  for  shorts  in  thesis  are  in  each  case  placed  side  by  side  for 
comparison.  The  shorts  for  longs  in  thesis  in  the  hexameter  are 
thus  omitted,  as  they  do  not  admit  of  comparison  with  anything 
in  the  iambic  and  trochaic  metres. 


short 
arses. 

long 
theses. 

s.  a.   l.t. 

3.  a 

l.t. 

s.  a.  l.t. 

1 
1 

s.  a. 

l.t. 

I.  cent 

.  hex. 

II.  cent, 
hex. 

III.  cent, 
hex. 

IV.  cent.  ,  Total 

hex.       he^;Fonr 
centuries. 

Final    ...... 

9 

11 

44    56 

73 

154 

48    82 

74 

303 

Before  Accent  .     .     . 

4      6 

8 

19 

12    20 

124 

45 

Under         „       ... 

2 

2 

6 

16 

19 

31 

27 1  22 

54 

71 

After          „        ... 

1 

2 

1 

5! 

9 

Remainder    .... 

2 

2 

8 

5'     4 

7 

14 

Comi 

nod. 

la.  trim. 

la.  dim. 

Troch. 
tetr. 

Total  ia. 
&  troch. 

Final    

136 

243 

21306 

4 

7 

22 

25  335 

Before  Accent  .     .     . 

18 

93 

8  104 

2 

6 

8  112 

Under         „        ... 

20 

114 

17    49 

1 

1 

1 

7 

19    57 

After          „        ... 

5 

3      1 

1 

4      1 

Remainder    .... 

6 

30 

1 

7 

1 

7 

Totals 

Short  arses 

Long  theses 

Inscript.  hexa^meters 

268 

433 

Commodian 

185 

480 

la.  &  troch.  inscr. 

57 

512 

III.  In  the  third  table  the  total  metrical  faults ,  in  both 
arsis  and  thesis,  of  the  second  table,  are  given  according  to  posi- 
tion in  the  word  and  kind  of  metre,  as  well  as  the  percentage  of 
each  class  to  the  whole  in  each  kind  of  metre. 


Short  arses  long  theses.     Ia.  &  troch.       Hex.  inscriptions. 


number 

Final 360 


Before  accent 
Under        „ 
After         „ 
Remainder  . 


120 

76 

5 

8 


7o 

63  + 

21  + 

13  + 

1- 

1  + 


number 

477 
69 

125 

9 

23 


7« 

68  + 

10- 

18- 

1  + 

3  + 


569      100 


701      100 


Commodian. 

number     "/o 

379    57- 

111    17- 

134    20  + 

5      1- 

36      5  + 

665      100" 


It   will  be  noticed   that   while    the   two  kinds   of  inscriptions 
and  Commodian   do   not  differ   very   materially    from  each    other 


—    45    - 

with  regard  to  the  proportion  of  total  faults  in  a  particular  word- 
position  (Table  III),  the  distribution  between  arses  and  theses  in 
the  case  of  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses  is  different  from  that 
in  the  hexameter.  In  the  iambic  and  trochaic  inscriptions  only 
57  of  569  faults  are  in  the  arsis  ,  while  in  the  hexameters  of  the 
inscriptions,  268  of  701 ,  and  in  Commodian  185  of  665  are  found 
there.  This  is  clearly  due  to  the  fact  that  so  many  of  the  iambic 
and  trochaic  inscriptions  followed  the  comic  style ,  in  which  all 
the  theses  except  the  last  are  undetermined. 

Further,  the  iambic  trimeter  has  a  proportionally  much 
smaller  number  of  short  finals  in  arsis  when  compared  with  the 
total  number  of  unmctrical  arses,  namely  21  out  of  50,  than  has 
the  hexameter,  174  out  of  268  in  the  inscriptions  and  136  out  of 
185  in  Commodian.  This  state  of  things  is  no  doubt  due  to  the 
position  of  the  caesura,  which  makes  the  rhythm  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  iambic  trimeter  trochaic.  In  fact  the  part  of  the 
trimeter  after  the  caesura  is  in  all  respects  equivalent  to  the  se- 
cond half  of  the  trochaic  tetrameter  catalectic.  This  method  of 
construction  of  course  tends  to  bring  a  larger  number  of  final 
syllables  into  the  thesis.  The  trochaic  tetrameter  inscriptions, 
where  the  rhythm  is  completely  trochaic,  have  all  their  unmetrical 
final  syllables  in  thesis.  In  the  iambic  dimeter  inscriptions,  on 
the  other  hand,  where  there  is  no  trochaic  caesura,  four  of  the 
five  short  arses  are  final  syllables.  In  the  hexameter ,  however, 
the  prevalent  masculine  caesura  brings  the  final  syllable  under 
the  ictus,  which  in  most  cases  practically  fixes  the  rhythm  also 
of  the  foot  preceding  and  following.  This  accounts  partially  no 
doubt  for  the  very  large  proportion  of  short  final  syllables  under 
the  ictus  in  the  hexameters. 

Compared  with  the  number  of  short  final  syllables  in  the 
arsis,  the  number  of  short  accented  syllables  found  there  is  very 
small,  except  in  the  case  of  the  trimeter  (and  tetrameter)  where 
the  position  of  the  caesura,  as  just  pointed  out,  works  the  other 
way.     The  figures  are : 

Inscript.  hex :    54  accented    174  final    268  total. 
Commodian:       20         „  136      „       185       „ 

Trimeter:  17         „  21      „         50       „ 

But  if  we  take  the  proportion  of  short  accented  syllables  in 
arsis  to  the  total  number  of  faults  in  accented  syllables,  the 
trimeter  stands  midway  between  Commodian  and  the  hexameter 
inscriptions : 


—    46    — 

Hex.  insci'ipt.  54  short  acctd.  arses  to  125  total  acctd,  faults. 
Commodian  20  „  „  „       „    134       „         „  „ 

la.  trim,  inscr.  17    „  „  „       ;,      66       „         „  „ 

These  figures  themselves  almost  exclude  the  hypothesis  of 
accentual  influence  in  the  inscriptions  or  Commodian. 

However,  there  is  still  another  method  by  which  a  possible 
influence  of  the  accent  may  be  tested,  that  is ,  to  compare  the 
number  of  short  accented  syllables  in  arsis  with  the  number  of 
short  syllables  immediately  before  or  after  the  accent,  found  in 
that  position.  For  if  there  is  an  accentual  influence ,  these  latter 
syllables  are  least  likely  to  be  recognized  by  the  ictus.  The 
proportion  is : 

Inscr.  hex.  54  accented  to  33  non  -  accentual ; 
Commodian  20       „  „    23     „  „ 

Trim,  inscr.  17      „  „    11     „  „ 

These  figures  show  the  number  of  accented  shorts  to  be  in 
general  somewhat  larger,  but  they  do  not  tell  the  whole  story, 
for  the  syllables  after  the  accent  in  words  of  two  syllables ,  are 
the  finals ,  and  of  course  these  can  not  be  separated  from  finals 
in  general ,  and  are  included  under  that  heading.  Words  of  two 
syllables,  furthermore,  have  no  syllable  before  the  accent.  They 
are  therefore  entirely  debarred  from  contributing  to  the  showing 
against  the  words  whose  short  accented  syllable  falls  under  the 
ictus.  If  we  allow  for  this,  we  have  the  fact  that  the  proportion 
of  short  accented  syllables  under  the  ictus  is  no  larger,  and  if 
anything  even  smaller,  than  that  of  the  syllables  with  least  stress, 
the  shorts  immediately  preceding  or  following  them. 

There  was,  however,  a  slight  gain  from  one  century  to  the 
other  in  favor  of  the  short  accented  syllable  under  the  ictus. 
The  figures  for  the  hexameter  inscriptions  by  centuries  are: 
I  cent.  —  2;  II— 6;  111—19;  IV— 27.  The  gain  is  one  in  pro- 
portion as  well  as  in  absolute  number : 

I  cent.  2  acctd.  out  of  a  total  of  12  short  syllables  under  the  ictus. 

-Lln"n  »  ;j5o„  „  nnn 

HI     „      19  „  „  .       103       „  „  .       r,       . 

IV     „27„  „  „97„  „  „„„ 

But  this  gain  was  practically  all  made  under  the  first  and 
fifth  ictuses ,  the  latter  of  which  always  ,  and  the  former  nearly 
always  stood  over  accented  syllables,  in  perfectly  metrical  verse 
as  well. 


—    47    — 

rr,  ,  1    ,      ,       T  1      ii     •  ,        I  cent.    II  cent.    Ill  cent.    IVcent. 

Total  short  syls.  under  the  ictus        ^^  rp  inQ  07 


JShort  accen 

ted 

1. 

ictus 

1 

1 

4 

0 

7)                  r 

2. 

n 

1 

1 

2 

3 

»                   n 

3. 

» 

1 

1 

»                   J) 

4. 

n 

1 

4 

8 

»                  n 

5. 

» 

2 

5 

13 

«                       w 

6. 

n 

1 

3 

2 

These  figures  are  again  not  to  be  taken  absolutely ,  but  in 
proportion  to  the  total  short  syllables  under  the  ictus  in  their 
respective  centuries. 

The  extent  of  the  accentual  influence  seems  then  to  have  been 
confined  to  this ,  that  it  became  slightly  easier ,  as  time  went  on, 
to  admit  a  short  accented  syllable  into  the  arsis  at  such  points 
in  the  verse  as  already  in  their  pure  metrical  form  had  a  coin- 
cidence of  verse  -  ictus  and  word  -  accent.  The  traditional  accumu- 
lated stress  at  these  points  seems  to  have  somewhat  obscured 
the  quantitative  character  of  the  syllables  which  came  to  stand 
there. 

If  we  turn  to  the  metrical  faults  in  thesis ,   we  find  the  final 
syllables  everywhere  by  far  the  most  fully  represented : 
Inscrip,  hex.  303  of  a  total  of  433 

Commodian  243    „  „  480 

la.  &  troch.  inscr.     335    „  „  512 

Generally  speaking  and  taking  into  account  the  peculiarities 
of  the  various  metres,  the  unmetrical  long  syllable  with  the  accent 
is  found  in  the  thesis  in  about  the  same  proportional  frequency 
as  the  unmetrical  short  syllable  with  the  accent  is  found  in  the 
arsis : 

Inscr.  hex.  71  out  of  433 

Commodian  114     „     „    480 

la.  &  tro.  inscr.      57     „     „    512 
The  accented  syllables   seem  therefore  to  take  without  much 
effort   or   refusal   the   share    of  blunders    that    fall   to   their    lot, 
whether  in  arsis  or  in  thesis. 

The  syllable  before  the  accent  is  rather  better  represented 
in  the  faults  of  the  thesis  than  of  the  arsis,  and  this  is  especially 
true  of  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses : 

Inscr.  hex.  —     45  out  of  total  of  433  unmetr.  long  theses. 
Commodian  —     93     „  „  480        „  „  „ 

la.  &  tro.  inscr.  —  112     „  „  512         n  n  n 

In  the  hexameters   this  class   of  faults  is  not  quite   so  nume- 


—    48    — 

rous  as  the  unmetrical  accented  syllables  in  thesis,  but  in  the 
iambic  and  trochaic  verses  about  twice  as  numerous.  In  the 
theses  of  the  spondaic  feet  of  the  hexameter,  the  faulty  syllables 
preceding  the  accent  are  more  numerous  than  the  faulty  accented 
syllables : 

Inscr.  hex.  —  36  to  25, 
Commodian  —  14    „    11. 

The  comparison  between  syllables  preceding  the  accent  and 
accented  syllables  is,  however  not  altogether  fair,  as  all  words 
of  two  syllables  can  contribute  only  to  the  showing  of  the  ac- 
cented syllables.  But  the  fact  that  the  syllable  before  the  accent 
holds  its  own  in  spite  of  this ,  shows  a  considerable  preference 
for  it  as  a  faulty  thesis.  This  preference  increased  both  absolutely 
and  relatively  from  century  to  century,  as  appears  in  the  hexa- 
meter inscriptions : 

Longs  for  shorts  in  thesis  —      I  cent. 

n    „ 

III  „ 

IV  „ 

Shorts  for  longs  in  thesis  —      I      » 

n    , 

III  „ 

IV  „  .,    ., 

The  increase  occurs  mainly  before  the  fifth  and  sixth  ictus, 
where  the  accented  syllable  before  which  it  stands  is  regularly 
under  the  ictus.     In  these  two  positions  are  found : 

Of  the  longs  for  short    II  cent.       2  out  of    6 

III  „ 

IV  „ 
Of  the  shorts  for  longs  II      „ 

III  , 

IV  „ 
In  Commodian  the  proportion  is  80  out  of  93, 

14  for  the  two  kinds  of  theses  respectively. 

The  fact  that  the  quantity  of  the  syllable  before  the  accent, 
whether  long  or  short,  was  more  easily  neglected  when  the  follow- 
ing, accented  syllable  was  under  the  ictus,  accounts  for  the  great 
number  of  faults  of  this  class  in  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses, 
where  of  the  two  arses  before  and  after  a  short  thesis,  one  or 
the  other  and  often  both  almost  necessarily  have  the  accent. 

This  instability  of  the  syllable  preceding  the  accent  needs 
little  explanation.    It  is   shown  by  abundant  examples   in  early 


0  out 

of  13 

6  „ 

.  80 

19  , 

„  204 

20  „ 

«  128 

0  . 

.   2 

5  „ 

.     13 

10  „ 

„  35 

21  „ 

„  48. 

9    W    J5 

19 

15  „  „ 

20 

1  „  . 

5 

8  „  „ 

10 

16  „  „ 

21. 

at  of  93, 

and  6  out  of 

'^\  B  «  A  ;?  y* 

or   THR 

—     49     —  V    ^ 

Latin  and  is,  in  fact,  a  universal  tendency  of  pronunciatTon,  wnen- 
ever  the  fullowing  syllaLle  is  raised  to  greater  prominence ,  as 
is  dune  here  when  in  addition  to  being  accented ,  it  stands  under 
the  ictus  and  coincides  with  "the  pulse-beat  of  the  verse."  "Through 
its  enhanced  prominence  this  syllable  anticipates  the  attention 
which  would  otherwise  be  given  to  the  preceding  syllable,  and 
the  pronunciation  of  the  latter  is  consequently  slighted. 

The  final  syllable,  which  has  already  been  touched  upon  sev- 
eral times ,  is  by  far  the  most  important  part  of  the  word  in 
the  investigation  of  the  period  before  us.  In  it  occur  over  63% 
of  all  faults  in  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses,  over  68%  in  the 
inscriptional  hexameters  and  nearly  hl^jo  in  Commodian.  Not 
only  is  this  large  proportion  of  faults  found  in  the  final  syllable, 
but  the  final  is  also  the  first  syllable  in  point  of  time  which  fur- 
nished a  considerable  number  of  faults,  its  great  prominence  as  a 
faulty  syllable  beginning  as  early  as  the  second  century.  The 
faulty  final  syllables  in  the  inscriptional  hexameters  are  as  follows : 
I.  cent.  —  short  arses  9,  long  theses  11. 
II.      „      —       „         „       44,     „  „         56. 

HI.      „      -      .         „      73,     „  „       154. 

IV.      „      -      „         „      48,     „     _      ,   _     82. 
Of  the  total  number  of  metrical  faults  (including  the  spondaic 
feet)  the  proportion  of  faults  found  in  final  syllables  is : 
I.  cent.  —    20    out  of    25. 
11.      „      -  105      „     ,    149. 

III.  „      —  236      „     „    360. 

IV.  „      -  147      „     „    253. 
Commodian  —  406      „     „    719. 

In  proportion  to  the  total  number  of  faults ,  as  these  figures 
show,  the  number  of  faults  found  in  final  syllables  does  not  in- 
crease ,  nor  does  it  decrease  in  any  great  degree ,  but  maintains 
nearly  the  same  level  during  the  four  centuries. 

To  be  sure,  the  final  syllable  has ,  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
certain  advantages  over  the  others  as  far  as  number  is  concerned. 
Eveiy  word  has  a  final  syllable  though  it  may  not  be  represented 
in  the  other  classes  spoken  of,  such  as  the  syllable  under  or 
before  the  accent.  We  should  therefore  expect  rather  more 
faults  in  the  final  than  in  any  other  syllable.  Monosyllables 
properly  belong  here  and  have  been  included,  since  they  present  the 
same  general  difficulties  of  adjustment  as  final  syllables.  But 
even  if  we  take  these  things  into  account,  the  result  is  still  very 
striking.     Really,   however,   the  important  thing    for  the   present 

4 


-    50    — 

purpose  is  that  the  final  syllable  is  actually  to  be  credited  with 
something  like  two  thirds  of  all  the  faults.  Whether  it  got  them 
by  numerical  superiority  or  otherwise,  is  fur  the  present,  a  matter 
of  indifference.  Still  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  mention  sev- 
eral causes  that  may  help  to  account  for  the  faulty  scansion  of 
a  final  syllable,  one  grammatical,  another  metrical,  a  third  lying 
in  the  nature  of  the  syllable  in  respect  to  pronunciation. 

In  the  first  place  the  modification  of  words  due  to  declension 
and  conjugation,  is  in  the  majority  of  cases  confined  to  a  change 
of  the  final  syllable.  The  difficulty  in  using  a  highly  inflected 
language  consists  largel}^  in  the  fact  that  this  modification  often 
appears  slight,  and  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  importance.  The 
outward  expression  of  this  condition  of  things  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  the  languages  mentioned  tend  to  become  analytic  as  soon  as 
an  epoch  in  their  history  arrives  which  places  them  in  the  hands 
of  people  lacking  the  ability  to  appreciate  and  preserve  the  fine  and 
accurate  distinctions  which  the  mechanism  of  these  languages  has 
come  to  express.  This  experience  the  Latin  language  was  be- 
ginning to  have  after  the  Silver  Age,  and  was  already  having  in 
fact,  so  far  as  many  individual  composers  of  inscriptions  were 
concerned.  What  was  more  natural  than  that  the  distinction  between 
''aqua"  and  'aqua,"  for  instance,  should  fade  and  that  the  ablative 
idea  should  be  expressed  by  a  prepositional  phrase.  By  the  same 
process  the  distinction  between  forms  like  "reddis"  and  "reddit," 
"laudat"  and  "laudant"  would  cease  to  be  vital,  even  if  it  was 
not  lost  altogether ,  and  the  personal  pronouns  would  be  needed 
for  difi'erentiation.  In  fact  the  use  made  of  these  analytic  tools 
in  late  Latin  shows  that  the  synthetic  mechanism  had  already 
given  out. 

In  the  second  place  there  may  be  a  metrical  cause.  The  final 
syllable  is  hardest  to  provide  for  in  scansion,  not  only  because 
its  metrical  character  changes  in  the  inflections ,  but  also  because 
in  the  majority  of  cases  the  writer  has  to  take  into  account  the 
beginning  of  the  next  word.  In  the  body  of  a  word  a  vowel  al- 
ways has  the  same  companion  consonants  and  its  metrical  status 
is  fixed,  but  at  the  end  this  status  may  depend  on  the  initial 
letter  of  a  word  which  may  stand  in  another  clause ,  or  even  in 
a  distinct  sentence.  That  this  constant  necessity  for  looking  ahead 
must  have  been  the  cause  ol  much  anxiety  to  the  occasional  writer 
of  verses  who  slowly  groped  his  way  from  word  to  word,  can 
not  be  doubted.  The  evidence  of  it  remains  to  us  in  such  scan- 
sions as 


—    51     — 

desine  iam  flerc  poenam  non  sentio  mortis 
poena  fuit  vita  requies  mihi  morte  parata  est. 

Buchelcr  507. 
Germaniae  meruit  speculator  et  cunicularius, 
legionis  initium  vitis  vitac  imt  finis.  Bitch.  522. 

iste  quater  denis  et  quattuor  mensibus  annis. 

Bitch.  528. 
Then,  in  the  third  place,  a  final  syllable  except  when  it  ends 
in  a  mute,  is  easily  drawn  out  long  or  cut  short  by  the  exigencies 
of  the  sentence.  Any  one  who  will  watch  the  fate  of  some 
English  word,  as  for  instance  "who"  or  "and,"  in  the  course  of  a 
conversation ,  will  realize  the  possibilities  for  the  corruption  of 
quantitative  verse  that  lie  in  mere  elocution.  Again,  this  fault 
is  of  course  much  less  likely  to  occur  in  the  body  of  a  word, 
where  the  vowels  have  their  ever  present  limits,  and  it  is,  natu- 
rally, most  easily  made  in  the  case  of  a  final  vowel. 


Summary.  —  The  main  results  obtained  from  the  study  of 
the  inscriptions  of  the  first  four  centuries  and  the  hexameters 
of  Commodian,  are  briefly  the  following : 

I.  From  one  half  to  three  fourths  of  the  faults  occur  in  the 
final  syllable.  The  great  prominence  of  the  syllable  in  this 
respect  dates  from  the  second  century  and  is  maintained  through 
the  following  centuries. 

II.  The  accent  does  not  seem  to  have  been  an  influence  of 
an}'  moment  in  the  introduction  of  faults.  Only  in  cases  where 
the  structure  of  metrical  verse  made  accent  and  ictus  coincide,  is 
there  a  gradual  increase  of  short  accented  syllables  under  the 
ictus,  and  this  toward  the  end  of   the  period  under  consideration. 

III.  The  instability  of  the  syllable  preceding  the  accent  in- 
creased toward  the  end  of  the  period,  especially  in  the  theses 
preceding  those  arses  in  which  the  structure  of  the  verse  makes 
accent  and  ictus  coincide. 


The  Transformation  of  Metrical  Forms. 

From  the  discussion  of  the  various  theories  of  the  origin  of 
rhythmical  verse  in  Latin,  several  facts  about  the  change  have 
already  become  plain  to  us.  In  the  first  place,  coincidence  be- 
tween accent  and  ictus  is  a  characteristic  of  metrical  as  well  as 
rhythmical  verse,  and  came  about  independently  of  the  neglect  of 
quantity.  The  disregard  of  quantity  cannot  have  been  simply 
due  to  a  general  lack  of  sensitiveness  to  distinctions  of  quantity, 
for  certain  parts  of  the  verse  were  much  more  subject  to  this 
neglect  than  others,  while  still  others  were  altogether  free  from 
it.  Further,  coincidence  between  accent  and  ictus  is  found  to  have 
arisen  in  some  classes  of  verse,  while  it  did  not  arise  in  others, 
and  in  still  a  third  class  of  metres ,  came  about  only  in  part  of 
the  verse.  This  phenomenon  can  not  be  explained  by  an}^  of  the 
theories  which  have  been  advanced,  because  the  influences  to  which 
they  respectively  attribute  the  coincidence  of  accent  and  ictus, 
would  operate  upon  all  kinds  of  metre  alike,  and  this  could  surely 
not  result  in  the  wide  diversity  just  mentioned.  It  will  be  ad- 
mitted that  the  conditions  which  made  possible  this  variety  of 
results,  must  have  been  of  such  a  character  that  they  could  affect 
one  class  of  verse,  while  they  could  not  affect  a  second,  and  but 
partially  affect  a  third.  What  were  the  conditions  which  could 
make  for  such  a  change? 

I.    The  Undetermined  Thesis. 

As  a  result  of  our  study  of  the  inscriptions  we  found  that 
in  iambic  and  trochaic  verses  two  parts  of  the  word  were  especi- 
ally liable  to  cause  metrical  faults  —  the  final  syllable ,  which 
was  responsible   for  about  two  thirds   of  all  the  faults   in  the  in- 


—    53    — 

scriptions ,  and ,  later  and  to  a  less  extent ,  and  mostly  in  the 
theses,  the  syllable  preceding  the  accent. 

These  phenomena  were  so  wide-spread,  that  we  must  assume 
that  the  tendency  they  represent  was  gradually  gaining  control 
of  the  pronunciation  of  all  classes  of  the  people.  By  the  fourth 
century,  as  one  can  easily  convince  himself,  there  are  very  few  met- 
rical inscriptions  that  are  altogether  free  from  these  faults. 
Even  the  liexameter  of  literature  began  to  3'ield  here  and  there 
to  the  instability  of  the  syllables  just  mentioned  [cf.  Carmen 
contra  Paganos,  (Baehrens  P  L  M,  III,  p.  287  fF),  of  ca.  394  or  895 
A.D.  —  11.  G.  11,  26,  31,  35,  41,  44,  45,  46,  50,  52,  73,  110,  111, 
117;  also,  of  probably  a  little  later  date,  Aegritudo  Perdiccae 
(Baehr.  PLM,  V,  p.  112).  11.  7,  15,  31,  58,  93,  107,  125,  131,  201, 
241 ;  Orestis  tragoedia  (ibid.  p.  218)  11.  82,  83,  &c].  To  be  sure, 
with  most  reputable  poets  this  tendency  had  not  yet,  at  the  time 
of  the  earliest  hymns ,  gained  control  to  the  extent  of  forcing 
itself  into  their  writing  in  contravention  of  the  established  met- 
rical rules.  But  that  it  was  present  and  made  itself  felt  even 
with  them,  is  clearly  seen  from  certain  changes  that  took  place 
in  the  structure  of  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses. 

According  to  the  strict  form  of  these  verses  every  second 
thesis ,  or  one  in  each  dipody ,  might  be  either  long  or  short. 
That  this  was  one  of  the  privileges  of  these  measures  and  con- 
tributed greatly  to  the  poet's  freedom  of  expression ,  is  evident. 
These  undetermined  theses  furnished  so  maTiy  breathing -spells  to 
the  verse  in  its  arduous  metrical  task.  But  to  the  conscientious 
poet  of  the  fourth  and  following  centuries  they  also  became  a  deliv- 
erer in  the  time  of  need.  For  when  there  was  doubt  about  the 
quantity  of  a  syllable,  it  might  in  most  cases  easily  be  made  to 
fall  in  the  undetermined  thesis,  and  would  in  fact  naturally  grav- 
itate in  that  direction.  And  thus  it  was  that  the  unstable  final 
syllables  and  the  unstable  syllables  preceding  the  accent  gradually 
established  a  practically  exclusive  claim  to  the  undetermined  theses. 
The  extent  to  which  this  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  iambic 
dimeter,  will  appear  from  the  following  table  (for  a  detailed 
table  of  the  individual  hymns  see  Appendix  11,  table  E): 


54    - 


Iambic  Dimeter:  Syllables  in  the  undetermined  thesis. 


Number. 


before  |    ^^^]     \  Qti^g^g 
accent.  i 


Perceutage. 


before 
accent. 


final.    I  others. 


Metrical: 
A 1)  Classical  period 
A  2)  Time  of  Ambrosias 
A3)  Sedulius  to  Bede 
A  4)  Carolingianperiod 
B)  Of  uncertain  date 


20 

166 

116 

7- 

55- 

103 

675 

244 

10  + 

66  + 

101 

579 

60 

14- 

79  + 

.48 

264 

32 

14- 

77- 

295 

1330 

134 

17- 

76- 

38  + 
24- 

8  + 

9  + 


C)  With  unmetrical 
theses  (early) 


33 

165 

6 

16  + 

81- 

195 
396 

710 
694 

71 
6 

20- 
35  + 

73- 

63  + 

3- 


Rhythmical: 

D)  Early 

E)  Late 


7  + 
1- 


Several  things  are  clear  from  this  table.  In  the  earlier  met- 
rical period ,  to  the  time  of  Sedulius  ,  it  was  especially  the  final 
syllable  which  made  for  the  undetermined  thesis.  This  is  in 
accord  with  what  we  found  true  in  the  inscriptions,  where  this 
syllable  was  by  far  the  most  unstable.  There  was  of  course  a 
limit,  in  a  short  verse  like  the  dimeter,  beyond  which  this  shifting 
of  the  final  syllable  could  not  go  without  causing  a  neglect  of 
quantity.  Tlie  highest  point  is  reached  in  those  hymns  which 
were  making  their  last  frantic  efforts  to  remain  quantitative,  hav- 
ing already  given  up  the  theses.  It  is  further  apparent  that 
the  tendency  taken  as  a  whole  had  practically  reached  its  possible 
limit  in  the  metrical  form  by  the  time  of  Sedulius.  Beyond  the 
stage  reached  at  that  time ,  the  later  metrical  and  early  rhyth- 
mical hymns  did  not  go.  The  end  had  indeed  almost  been  reached, 
when  the  proportion  of  lines  whose  undetermined  thesis  was  not 
filled  by  an  unstable  syllable  had  decreased  from  38%  to  8^0. 

In  the  trochaic  tetrameter  the  decrease  was  still  more  marked, 
as  the  following  table  will  show: 


—    55    — 


lines. 

First  Half. 

Sooond  III 

ilf. 

•^efo'-fl  final, 
accent.  | 

others. 

before 
accent. 

final. 

others. 

Metrical : 

A  1)    Before  Pruden- 

tius 
A  2)    Prudcntius    to 

Fui-timatus 
A  3)    IJnoertain  date 

286 

308 

216 

57 

68 
19 

132 

136 
157 

131 

104 

40 

28 

69 
31 

193 

200 
182 

99 

39 
3 

B)    With    unmetri- 
cal  theses 

169 

10      138 

21 

29 

136 

3 

Rhythmical: 

C)  Undeveloped 

D)  Developed 

124 
504 

2 
26 

119 
326 

3 

50 

28 
191 

96 
310 

1 

In  the  second  lialf  of  this  metre  Ennodins  and  Fortunatus 
have  already  reached  the  point  vv^here  only  unstable  syllables  are 
found  in  the  undetermined  thesis.  This  continued  to  be  the  uni- 
versal practice  of  writers  both  metrical  and  rhythmical.  In  the 
first  half  the  final  sjdlable  in  the  course  of  time  all  but  usurped 
an  undisputed  claim  to  the  undetermined  thesis  at  the  expense 
of  all  other  syllables. 

The  result  of  this  shifting  in  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses 
was  that  new  caesuras  arose,  little  by  little,  before  and  especially 
after  the  undetermined  theses.  When  the  final  syllable  stands  in 
the  thesis,  tlie  iambic  dimeter  would  have  the  form  m_w  —  i^||_u'^, 
and  the  trocliaic  tetrameter  would  be  cut  into  its  four  dipodies, 
_  u  —  ^  II  —  u  —  M  II  —  w  _  iri  II  _  w  ^.  If  the  syllable  preceding  the 
accent  in  words  of  either  three  or  four  syllables  stands  in  the 
undetermined  thesis,  the  lines  would  have  the  form  i=^_u_||ii_u.ii 
and  —  u—  II-  —  u— -II  _u—  11^  —  w^  respectively.  Words  of  five 
or  more  syllables  at  the  end  of  the  verse ,  may  be  left  out  of 
account  for  the  present  because  of  their  rare  occurrence.  It  is 
necessary  only  to  notice  that  they  would  prevent  conflict  of 
accent  and  ictus  at  the  end  of  either  verse. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  possible  types  in  detail.  If  the  di- 
meter takes  the  form  i^_u— ^||— u^,  harmonj'-  of  accent  and 
ictus  will  of  necessity  exist  just  before  the  caesura.  The  begin- 
ning of  the  verse  will  be  -  |  -  u  or  :^^u  or  -  —  j ,  and  only  in 
the  last  of  the  three  cases  could  there  be  conflict  of  accent  and 
ictus.   After  the  caesura  we  may  have  ^^^  or  iu  j  h  ov  —\  ^  ^, 


-     56    - 

with  conflict  only  in  the  last  case  of  the  three.  If  the  dimeter 
takes  the  form  y-  _  u  —  ||  V-  A  o  ^ ,  the  first  half  may  be  either 
^  \  ±u  —  or  ^Au|—  with  harmony ,  or  5  _  |  u  _  with  a  double 
conflict  of  accent  and  ictus.  In  the  second  half,  in  this  case,  there 
can  be  no  conflict ,  since  only  —  —  u|^  or  ^Auii  would  be 
possible. 

There  could  be  conflict  at  the  end  of  the  verse  then  in  only 
one  possible  case  out  of  five  and  at  the  beginning  in  only  two 
possible  cases  out  of  six.  Conflict  depends  in  the  first  foot  on  a 
word  of  the  type  —  — ,  in  the  second  on  u  —  preceded  by  -^  — 
or  ii  I  —  |,  and  in  the  last  foot  on  ^^  preceded  by  a  monosyllable 
long  by  nature  or  position.  Of  these  there  can  be  no  doubt 
which  would  occur  most  frequently.  The  only  place  where  a 
spondaic  word  could  occur  would  be  in  the  first  foot.  An  iambic 
word  could  occur  unconditionally  in  the  first  and  conditionally  in 
the  second  or  last,  where  its  admission  would  depend  on  what 
preceded.  A  pyrrhic  word  could  occur  on  one  condition  in  the 
first  and  last.  It  would  have  to  be  followed  by  a  position-making 
word  in  the  first,  and  preceded  by  a  monosyllable  long  by  nature 
or  position  in  the  last.  In  the  second  it  could  occur  on  two 
conditions ,  viz.  when  a  following  word  made  position  and  before 
it  stood  the  dissylable  ^ —  or  two  monosyllables  ^  '  —  \. 

In  the  first  foot  we  have  then  one  conditioned  and  two  un- 
conditioned chances  for  a  conflict,  and  in  the  second  and  the  last, 
two  conditioned  chances  each.  Of  these  conditions,  furthermore, 
the  hardest  to  fulfill  is  that  required  of  the  last  foot,  on  account 
of  the  comparatively  greater  scarcity  of  suitable  monosyllables, 
when  compared  with  the  frequency  of  ^—  or  -^  |  —  |,  or  following 
words  that  make  position  (in  case  of  the  pyrrhic) ,  which  are  re- 
quired in  the  first  and  second  feet.  Further  than  that,  in  the  iam- 
bic dimeter  of  the  by  far  most  widely  represented  type  ^  —  u  _  ^  [| 

—  u  ^,  in  which  alone ,  of  the  types  considered ,  a  conflict  could 
occur  at  the  end,  there  is  no  good  place  elsewhere  —  since  a  mono- 
syllable does  not  as  a  rule  stand  before  the  caesura  —  for  words 
of  the  type  —^^.  These  would  of  course  naturally  go  to  the 
end,  and  thus  still  further  narrow  the  possibility^  of  conflict  at  that 
point.  At  the  same  time  there  was  a  natural  limit  to  the  full 
accentual  development  of  the  verse-end  in  the  iambic  dimeter.  It 
would  be  practically  impossible  always  to  introduce  into  so  short 
a  verse  enough  words  of  three  or  more  syllables  with  the  ending 

—  ^~,  to  have  one  for  the  end  of  each  line ,  since  these  words 
would  on  the  average  occupy  nearly  or  quite  half  of  all  the  avail- 


57     - 


able  space.  In  the  trochaic  tetrameter  and  the  iambic  trimeter 
this  difficulty  did  not  exist  on  account  of  the  greater  length  of 
these  lines.  Still  the  tendency  in  the  dimeter  would  necessarily  be 
in  the  direction  of  avoiding  conflicts  at  the  end  of  the  verse,  and 
of  having  them,  if  at  all,  in  the  beginning,  especially  in  the  first 
foot.  A  glance  over  the  table  of  conflicts  in  the  iambic  dimeter 
(p.  5ff.)  shows  that  this  is  what  actually  took  place. 

In  the  case  of  the  trochaic  tretrameter  of  the  tj^e  _  u  —  ^- 1| 
_  u  —  >^  II  —  u  —  ^  II  —  u  -^,  no  conflict  whatever  is  possible  in  the 
first  three  dipodies.  They  will  either  be  —uJa^,  _  |  w  3l  m, 
_>jii-^,  — '  ^|j!-^  or  Au— li^,  but  in  no  case  can  an  accented 
syllable  stand  in  the  thesis.  In  the  final  dipody  we  may 
have  A  u  ^,  -2-  u  1  ^  or  _  |  5  v,  a  conflict  occurring  in  the  last  case. 
As  in  the  iambic  dimeter,  the  conflict  in  the  final  word  depends 
on  having  a  monosyllable  long  by  nature  or  position  for  the  pe- 
nultimate word.  But  in  this  verse  there  are  six  other  places 
where  the  long  monosyllable  can  be  used  to  advantage,  so  that 
the  share  of  long  monosyllables  which  would  fall  to  the  lot  of 
the  last  dipody,  would  in  any  case  be  small.  And  besides  tliat, 
just  as  in  the  dimeter  of  the  first  type,  there  is  in  all  the  rest 
of  the  trochaic  tetrameter  of  this ,  the  prevalent  type ,  no  good 
place  for  a  word  of  the  type  a  ^  h,  which  just  fits  the  end.  We 
should  then  in  the  pure  examples  of  this  type  hardly  expect  con- 
flicts in  any  part  of  the  verse. 

In  the  trochaic  tetrameter  of  the  type  — u—  ||ii-3.u_-^|| 
_  u  _  II  ^  i  u  '^-,  the  second  and  fourth  parts  do  not  allow  of  con- 
flict ,  while  the  first  and  third  may  have  it  or  not  according  as 
they  are  made  up  of  single  words  of  the  type  -  u  —  and  two 
words  i  u  I  — ,  or  of  two  words  —  |  ^  —  Here  again  there  is  only 
one  chance  out  of  three  for  a  conflict ,  in  only  two  feet  of  the 
verse.  The  actual  occurrence  of  conflict  in  the  trochaic  tetrameter, 
in  the  different  stages  of  its  development,  is  as  follows : 


Metrical: 

verses. 

1.  foot 

2.    3.    4. 

5.      6.    7. 

A 1)    Before    Prudentius 
A  2)  Prudentius  to  Fortu- 

natus 
A3)  Of  uncertain  date 

286 

308 
216 

80 

49 
22 

125   1      1 

100 
33   1      1 

33  100  116 

16    37    4J 
7      14 

B)   Unmetrical  theses 

169 

11 

20 

7      4      8 

Rhythmical: 

C)  Undeveloped 

D)  Developed 

124 
547 

6 
19 

3 
14   3 

12              1 
58             1 

58 


That  this  development  of  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses  in 
an  accentual  direction  did  not  occur  in  the  rhythmic  verses  alone, 
but  in  the  metrical  ones  as  well,  and  that  it  really  reached  its 
height  in  the  metrical  hymns ,  has  been  pointed  out  in  another 
connection  (pp.  13 — 14),  If  our  conclusions  have  been  correct,  this 
must  necessarily  be  so,  for  it  was  the  strict  metrical  form  re- 
quiring all  the  arses  and  half  of  the  theses  to  be  of  a  certain 
fixed  quantity  and  allowing  the  liberty  of  long  or  short  in  only 
one  syllable  in  each  dipody,  that  gradually  drew  the  unstable 
syllables  to  the  latter  place,  and  thus  of  necessity  brought  on 
coincidence  of  accent  and  ictus  at  certain  points  in  verses  of  these 
classes. 

An  additional  confirmation  of  the  correctness  of  this  position 
is  derived  from  a  comparison  of  several  metres  which  were  used 
more  rarely  in  a  rhythmical  form. 

The  iambic  trimeter  had  its  undetermined  theses ,  one  of 
which  had  always  stood  before  the  caesura,  making  the  second 
half  of  the  verse  equivalent  to  the  second  half  of  the  trochaic 
tetrameter  catalectic.  In  this  part  the  conflicts  would  then  of 
course  practically  be  confined  to  one  foot ,  the  fourth  of  the 
trimeter  (corresponding  to  the  sixth  of  the  tetrameter).  In  the 
first  half  of  the  trimeter  the  first  foot  would  be  subject  to  prac- 
tically the  same  conflicts  as  the  first  foot  of  the  dimeter ,  while 
in  the  second  foot  of  the  trimeter  no  conflict  could  occur,  owing 
to  the  trochaic  ending  before  the  caesura.  The  following  table 
of  I'hythmical  trimeters  shows  the  location  and  number  of 
conflicts. 


MI,  387  Ad  eaeli 
DI,  237  Felix  per 
MI,  145  Salve  crux 
Mill,  406  0  caeli 
„       239  0  s.  Blasi 
„       145  Sanctorum 
„         61  Andrea  p. 
March:  Aurea  luce 


no.  of 
verses. 

72 

40 

20 

24 

12 

20 

52 

28 


1.  foot. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5.       (i. 

36 

10 

15 

3 

9 

3 

19 

5 

4 

3 

14 

4 

22 

6 

11 

0 

The  sapphic  had  no  undetermined  theses  in  the  body  of  the 
verse ,  and  consequently  no  accentual  development.  The  table 
(p.  10)  shows  that  this  metre  had  the  same  number  of  conflicts 
in  about  the  same  location  in  both  the  metrical  and  the  rhyth- 
mical forms. 


—    59    — 

The  same  is  true  of  the  rhythmical  hexameter ,  in  which  the 
coincidence  of  accent  and  ictus  which  had  for  a  long  time  existed 
in  the  last  two  feet  of  the  metrical  form  of  the  verse,  is  main- 
tained, but  the  conflicts  that  occur  in  the  remainder  of  the  verse 
are  just  as  conspicuous,  if  not  more  conspicuous,  in  the  rhythmical 
than  in  the  metrical  form  (cf.  Meyer,  I.e.  p.  36— 39  =  300—303). 

Not  only  then  has  a  vital  connection  been  shown  to  exist 
between  the  decrease  of  the  conflict  of  accent  and  ictus,  and 
the  gravitation  of  the  unstable  syllables  of  the  word  toward  the 
undetermined  theses,  but  the  tables  of  the  actual  occurrence  of 
conflict  between  accent  and  ictus  show  the  extent  of  tbis  conflict 
to  have  decreased  pari  passu  with  the  spread  of  the  other 
tendency  just  mentioned,  and  what  is  still  more  convincing,  to 
have  decreased  in  exactly  the  same  way  in  which  it  would  be 
expected  to  decrease  as  a  result  of  that  tendency. 

II,    The   Tendency   to   Reproduction   and   Division. 

Though  the  gravitation  of  unstable  syllables  toward  the  un- 
determined theses  was  no  doubt  the  main  ^)  factor  in  the  trans- 
formation of  the  metrical  form  of  the  verse,  there  were  other  forces 
at  work  which  exerted  more  or  less  influence,  according  to  circum- 
stances. The  movement  toward  uniformity  in  the  relation  between 
accent  and  ictus  at  the  end  of  iambic  and  trochaic  verses,  was  in 
all  probability  at  least  accelerated  by  the  natural  prominence  of 
the  verse-ending  ,  which  causes  it  to  adhere  in  the  mind  and  thus 
easily  leads  to  a  more  or  less  exact  reproduction  of  it.  When  a 
certain  verse-ending,  constructed  with  a  particular  relation  between 
accent  and  ictus,  had  once  gained  a  very  decided  numerical  suprem- 
acy ,  its  complete  control  would  naturally  be  more  or  less  a 
question  of  time  and  convenience.  A  second  result  also  to  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  existence  of  undetermined  theses  leads,  name- 
ly the  tendency  to  cut  a  verse  up  into  shorter  parts  and  to 
reproduce  these  broken  verses  with  some  regularit}',  is  at  the 
same    time  a   common  characteristic    of   most   of  the  popular    and 


1)  The  vigorous  operation  of  this  tendency  can  be  seen  from  the  unusually 
large  number  of  such  verse-endings  as  "dum  pudet"  (—  |  ^  ^),  in  Ambrosius  and 
other  early  metrical  hymns.  That  this  ending  had  nothing  pleasant  about  it  for 
Roman  ears  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  its  occurrence  is  extremely  rare  among 
the  writers  of  earlier  periods.  What  recommended  it  to  Ambrosius  and  his  fol- 
lowers was  the  fact  that  it  allowed  a  final  syllable  to  stand  in  the  preceding  un- 
determined thesis. 


—    60    — 

unskillful  forms  of  verse  generally.  This  tendency  owes  Its 
origin,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the  fact  that  it  is  easier  to  reproduce 
short  than  to  reproduce  long  verse-elements,  and  on  the  other 
hand,  to  the  primitive  pleasure  in  the  rapid  jingle  that  it  intro- 
duces. 

Both  of  the  influences  mentioned,  toward  reproduction  of  the 
verse-ending  and  toward  division  of  the  line  into  smaller  parts, 
were  no  doubt  at  work  in  all  kinds  of  verse  that  underwent  a 
transformation  in  their  late  metrical  stage.  To  be  sure,  the  effect 
of  these  influences  could  not ,  in  the  nature  of  the  case ,  be  as 
definite  and  decisive  as  that  caused  by  the  movement  of  the  un- 
stable syllables  toward  the  undetermined  theses,  since  the  former 
influences  are  largely  matters  of  taste  and  preference ,  while  the 
latter  furnished  a  means  of  escape  from  a  difficulty  and  was  to 
that  extent  a  necessity  ^).  And  still,  when  circumstances  were 
especially  favorable,  the  results  of  the  former  may  be  seen  quite 
as  unmistakably  as  those  of  the  latter.  A  notewortly  example  of 
the  former  influences  is  furnished  by  the  lesser  asclepiadean  verse, 
which  had  no  undetermined  theses,  and  therefore  furnishes  an  un- 
clouded view  of  the  working  of  the  principles  under  discussion. 

The  later  metrical  forms  of  this  metre  present  a  development 
which  is  altogether  unique.  Hymns  like  Dan.  I,  217  and  203, 
which  clearly  stand  near  the  verge  of  the  metrical  practice,  show 
an  extraordinary  prevalence  of  a  secondar^^  caesura  in  each  half 
of  the  verse,  which  results  in  a  division  of  the  line  into  four 
parts  of  three  syllables  each  ^),  The  principal  cause  of  this  seems 
to  have  been,  in  the  first  half,  the  similarity  in  condition  and 
surroundings  of  the  third  and  sixth  syllables.  Both  these  syllables 
have  the  ictus,  the  former  being  made  still  more  prominent,  on 
the  side  toward  the  end  of  the  verse,  by  the  two  short  syllables 


1)  The  numerical  preponderance  gained  in  the  course  of  time  by  that  form 
of  trochaic  tetrameter  in  which  the  verse  is  cut  into  its  dipodies,  was  no  doubt 
to  some  extent  due  to  the  identity  of  three  of  these  parts. 

2)  As  an  illustration,  the  first  two  stanzas  of  the  former  hymn  may  be 
given. 

Festum  nunc  celebre  magnaque  gaudia 
Compellunt  animos  carmina  promere, 
Cum  Christus  solium  scandit  ad  arduum, 
Caelorum  pius  arbiter. 

Conscendit  iubilans  laetus  ad  aethera, 
Sanctorum  populus  praedicat  inclytum, 
Concinit  pariter  angelicus  chorus 
Victoris  boni  gloriam. 


—    61     — 

in  thesis  which  follow  it ,  the  latter ,  on  the  same  side ,  by  the 
main  caesura.  In  the  second  half  of  the  verse ,  the  first  and 
fourth  syllables  also  have  the  ictus  and  are  similarly  situated  on 
the  side  toward  the  beginning  of  the  verse,  the  first  being  pre- 
deced  by  the  main  caesura,  the  fourth  by  the  two  short  syllables 
in  thesis.  That  prominent  syllables  so  placed  should,  with  un- 
skillful versifiers,  in  the  course  of  time  come  more  and  more  to 
stand ,  the  former  pair  at  the  end  of  words ,  the  latter  pair  at 
the  beginning,  is  onl}'  natural  and  exhibits  an  extension  to  similar- 
ity of  surroundings  and  quantitative  prominence  of  the  same 
principle  which  underlies  rhyme  and  alliteration. 

The  situation  thus  created  could  not  last  long,  nor  indeed 
could  this  minute  division  become  a  universal  practice,  owing  to 
the  impossibility  of  finding  suitable  words.  The  movement  seems, 
however,  to  have  gone  far  enough  to  enable  it  to  fall  in  with 
the  other  movement  which  we  found  in  the  very  common  iambic 
and  trochaic  verses,  and  which  resulted  in  making  all  verse-endings 
consist  of  polysyllabic  words  with  the  accent  on  the  antepenult 
(cf.  p.  55  2*.).  The  natural  result  of  the  whole  process  was  of 
course,  in  the  asclepiadean ,  a  decrease  of  conflicts  at  the  end  of 
the  second  half,  and  an  increase  of  conflicts  at  the  end  of  the 
first  half  of  the  verse.  The  later  metrical  lines,  in  fact,  have  no 
conflicts  in  the  former,  and  invariably  have  conflicts  in  the  latter 
position  (cf.  the  table  of  conflicts  in  the  asclepiadean,  p.  10). 

An  examination  shows  that  while  in  quantity  the  verse  ad- 
hered to  the  old  rules ,  it  had  at  the  same  time  attained  quite  a 
hard  and  fast  form  when  read  according  to  accent.  With  the 
possible  accents  the  verse  is  now  -^a. —  5  u  _  ||  i' 5  ^j  a^u.^.  Of 
course  an  asclepiadean  constructed  in  that  way,  at  once  lost  its 
original  rhythmical  character  as  soon  as  the  quantity  of  the  syl- 
lables was  disregarded  and  the  accent  was  left  as  the  sole  rhyth- 
mical element  of  the  verse.  But  in  spite  of  the  difl'erence  in 
rhythm  between  the  classical  asclepiadean  and  the  verse  just 
mentioned,  the  descent  of  the  latter  from  the  former  is  evident 
from  several  facts.  In  the  first  place,  most  rhythmical  hymns  of 
this  class  are  written  in  strophes  of  four  lines,  of  which  each  of 
the  first  three  has  the  same  number  of  syllables  as  the  lesser 
asclepiadean  and  the  fourth  line  has  the  same  number  as  the  gly- 
conic.  Now  this  very  combination  of  verses  had  been  the  favorite 
asclepiadean  stanza  in  the  metrical  hymns  and  is  quite  common 
also  in  the   classical  and  post -classical  pagan   writers.     But   still 


—    62    - 

more  convincing,  perhaps,  of  the  close  connection  between  the 
rhythmical  and  metrical  verses  under  discussion  is  the  fact  that 
at  least  one  hymn  (D  I,  p.  18G  Cyxilla)  which,  while  abounding  in 
metrical  faults,  still  clearly  exhibits  the  rhythm  of  the  old  ascle- 
piadean  metre,  has  a  doxology  appended  to  it,  which  is  thoroughly 
unmetrical  and  has  the  trochaic  -  dactyilic  rhythm  which  is  found 
in  all  the  later  rhythmical  forms  ^). 

The  change  in  rhythm  which  attended  the  change  from  the 
metrical  to  the  rhythmical  form  of  the  asclepiadean  has  a  counter- 
part in  the  history  of  the  sapphic,  though  the  identity  is ,  from 
the  regular  and  unvarying  form  of  the  sapphic  strophe,  much 
more  clearly  evident  ''^).  In  the  case  of  the  sapphic ,  moreover, 
the  new  accentual  rhythm  was  alread}^  inherent  in  the  metrical 
form  since  the  time  of  Horace  and  Seneca  (cf.  p.  15),  and  a  trans- 
formation like  that  of  the  metrical  asclepiadean  was  not  first 
necessary  to  make  the  rhythmical  form  possible.  If  one  reads 
the  sapphic  metre  accentually,  it  is  found  to  have  a  distinct  rhythm : 

lam  satis  terris  nivis  atque  dirae 

Grandinis  misit  pater  et  rubente 

Dextera  sacras  iaculatus  arcis 
Terruit  rirbem. 
This  is  a  well-known  fact  and  has  even  led  to  the  extraordi- 
nary theory  that  Horace  wrote  his  sapphics  with  attention  both 
to  accent  and  to  quantity^).  The  real  reason  for  this  concomitant 
"accentual  rliythm,"  is  that  in  the  sapphic  line  as  it  had  existed 
in  Latin  since  Horace's  da}^,  with  the  fourth  syllable  invariably 
long ,  with  a  fixed  caesura  after  the  fifth  syllable  and  with  the 
avoidance,  common  to  Latin  verse,  of  a  single  monosyllable  before 
the  caesura  and  the  verse-end ,  the  accent  must  per  force  fall  on 
the  syllables  on  which  it  is  found. 


1)  A   comparison  of  the  last   stanza  proper  with  the    appended  stanza   will 
make  this  clear ; 

Te  nostra  iubilet  gloria  perpetim, 
Qui  solus  dominus,  triniis  et  unus  es: 
lugi  imperio  saecula  coutinens, 
Et  cuncta  dominans,  omnibus  imperans. 

Praesta,  ingenite,  per  unigenitum, 
Regnans  qui  perpetim  cum  sancto  spiritu, 
Olympum  contines  iugi  iudicio, 
Sustentans  aridam  perenne  imperio. 

2)  cf.  Mone  I,  20  note. 

3)  Eickhoff,  d.  horazische  Doppelbau  d.  sapphischen  Strophe. 


—    63    — 

To  sum  up  briefly  the  changes  in  the  late  metrical  hymns 
thus  far  mentioned,  we  have  found  that  the  iambic,  trochaic  and 
asclepiadcan  verses  reached  a  more  or  less  complete  harmon}^  of 
accent  and  ictus  at  the  end  of  the  line ,  while  conflicts  between 
accent  and  ictus  remained  in  certain  other  positions  of  the  line, 
and  in  some  of  these  metres ,  like  the  iambic  dimeter  and  ascle- 
piadcan, actually  became  more  numerous  in  these  latter  positions. 
In  the  sapphic  and  hexameter  practically  no  change  took  place  in 
the  relation  between  accent  and  ictus. 

In  this  condition  the  various  metres  were  found  when  the 
practice  of  disregarding  quantit}^  became  general  and  accent  was 
left  as  the  only  element  which  could  give  them  a  rhythmical 
character.  Then  the  rhythm  at  the  end  of  the  iambic  dimeter,  of 
the  two  halves  of  the  trochaic  tetrameter,  of  the  iambic  trimeter 
and  of  the  second  half  of  the  asclepiadcan  naturally  remained  as 
it  had  been  before ,  since  in  these  positions  the  accent  had  in  the 
metrical  forms  always  coincided  or  had  come  to  coincide  with  the 
ictus.  Except  in  the  end  of  these  verses  and  parts  of  verses, 
there  was ,  to  be  sure ,  no  fixed  place  for  the  accent.  But  the 
part  in  which  there  was  harmony  of  accent  and  ictus  was  relatively 
so  large  and  prominent  compared  with  that  in  which  there  was  not, 
that  the  latter  was  naturally  lost  in  the  former,  as  far  as  the  rhythm 
was  concerned.  In  the  rhj^thmical  hexameter,  on  the  other  hand, 
only  the  last  two  feet  would  have  a  fixed  rhythm,  which  was  the 
same  as  that  of  the  metrical  hexameter.  All  the  rest  of  this 
verse,  therefore,  failed  to  acquire  a  definite  accentual  rhythm,  as 
it  was  too  long  to  fall  in  with  the  rhythm  of  the  last  two  feet. 
As  a  result ,  the  hexameter  found  less  favor  with  rhythmical 
writers  than  any  of  the  other  metres  under  discussion.  In  the 
sapphic  and  the  first  half  of  the  asclepiadcan,  the  accent  had  or 
came  to  have  a  fixed  place  in  the  verse,  with  a  location,  however, 
which  difi'ered  from  that  of  the  metrical  ictus.  Hence  the  rhythm 
in  these  metres  was  difi'erent  in  their  rhythmical  from  what  it 
had  been  in  their  metrical  form. 


III.    The  Loss  of  Elision. 

The  instability  of  the  final  syllable  in  the  course  of  time 
quite  naturally  brought  about  another  change.  To  the  already 
existing  hardship  caused  by  the  necessity  of  looking  ahead  to  the 
next  word  ,  whose  initial  letter  might  determine  the  length  of  a 
final  syllable,  was  now  added  the  fading  away  of  the  final  con- 


—     64     — 

sonant  ^).  Under  such  circumstances  the  elision  of  the  final  vowel  or 
vowel  +  m  before  an  initial  vowel  or  A,  became  a  burden.  For  on 
the  one  hand,  with  writers  ill-trained  in  metrical  theory  and  practice, 
there  was  need  of  no  little  providential  calculation  to  allow  under 
certain  conditions  for  the  substitution  in  the  metre  of  the  first 
syllable  of  a  following  word  for  the  final  syllable  preceding  it, 
and  to  make  sure  that  they  obtained  the  quantity  desired,  and  on 
the  other  hand,  the  fading  of  the  final  consonants  made  a  distinction 
between  the  cases  where  elision  was  allowed  and  where  it  was 
not  allowed,  increasingly  difficult. 

In  this  condition  of  affairs  the  path  of  least  resistance  clearly 
lay  in  the  direction  of  avoiding  the  circumstances  that  would  lead 
to  elision.  And  we  find  in  the  late  quantitative  hymns  but  very 
rare  occurrence  of  this  phenomenon.  Only  here  and  there  a  hymn 
has  something  like  the  old-time  proportion.  Nearly  all  of  them, 
however,  have  no  elision  whatever,  or  at  most  a  single  case  of  it. 
(For  a  detailed  statement  see  table  B  in  Appendix  II). 

IV.    The  Loss  of  Resolution. 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  the  metrical,  as  well  as  the 
rhythmical  form  of  the  hymns  was  based  upon  the  stricter ,  not 
the  looser  form  of  Latin  iambic  and  trochaic  verse.  Not  only 
was  this  strict  form  followed ,  but  one  of  the  few  liberties 
allowed  it ,  that  of  occasional  resolution  of  a  long  syllable  into 
two  shorts,  was,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  41),  at  once  given  up  when 
the  metres  began  to  be  employed  in  hymns  intended  for  the  use 
of  the  church.  Thus  while  Ausonius  shows  considerable  freedom 
in  this  respect,  and  Prudentius  also  makes  frequent  use  of  reso- 
lution, Ambrosius  has  but  two  cases  in  his  188  lines.  And  not 
only  was  it  abandoned  by  Ambrosius,  but  it  was  very  rarely  re- 
sorted to  in  the  hymns  thereafter  (for  a  detailed  statement  see 
table  A  in  Appendix  II). 

The  surrender  of  this  liberty  by  the  hymns  from  the  very 
start,  was  in  all  probability  due  largely  to  the  same  cause  which 
we  saw  operating  in   the  case   of  the   soldier   songs.     All  irregu- 


1)  Examples  of  this  are  seen  in  the  earliest  rhymes: 
Fortunatus:  -Ms,  -is-it,  ens-et,  -i-it,  -a-at. 

Hymnum  clicat:  -em-et,  -ur-us,  -I-it,  -it-is,  -um-ur,  -at-a,  -um-u,  -am-a,  -us-um. 
Incliti  festum:  -em-et-e,  -a-am,  -i-it,  -o-um,  -ur-um,  -es-e,  -is-it. 
Sedulius:  -e-em,  -i-it,  -a-at,  -is-i,  -um-o,  -us-um,  -e-es,  -ant-am,  -is-it,  &c. 
Jam  sexta  sensim:  -ur-us,  -i-it,  -es-e,  -us-o,  est-em,  -o-um,  -e-er,  -ax-am. 


—    65    — 

larity  of  rhythm  clearly    tends  to    confusion  when   the    hymn    or 
song  is  to  be  sung  in  chorus  by  a  number  of  pocple. 

Another  influence  which  would  tend  to  keep  uniform  the 
hymns  written  for  church  use  and  which  is  also  partly  to  be 
held  reponsible  for  the  lack  of  variety  in  the  metres  employed, 
is  that  the  hymns  were  in  all  likelihood  written  to  fit  a  fixed 
rhythmical  scheme  or  melody,  to  which  they  were  to  be  sung. 
We  know  how  potent  an  influence  for  uniformity  this  was  with 
all  lyric  metres  of  antiquit}^,  and  especially  in  Latin.  To  the 
average  body  of  people  it  is  immensely  more  difficult  to  learn  a 
new  tune  than  to  sing  new  songs  to  an  old  tune.  Then  to  say 
nothing  of  the  harm  to  the  music  itself,  the  embarrasment  which 
one  singer  would  naturally  feel  if  he  found  himself  parting  com- 
pany with  the  rest,  or  found  himself  at  the  end  of  the  line  sud- 
denly a  syllable  ahead  or  behind  as  a  result  of  an  irregularity 
of  the  metre ,  and  the  general  confusion  apt  to  arise  from  the 
singing  of  a  h3^mn  of  uneven  rhythm  by  a  chorus,  are  circum- 
stances which  would  themselves  account  for  the  almost  complete 
absence  of  resolution  in  the  Latin  hymns,  even  if  we  did  not  have 
the  examples  of  the  earlier  lyric  measures  of  the  language  be- 
fore us. 


The  Khythmical  Imitation  of  Quantitative 

Metres. 

To  understand  fully  the  position  of  the  early  writers  of  rhyth- 
mical hymns,  it  will  be  necessary  to  keep  in  mind  the  conditions 
which  at  that  time  surrounded  the  writing  of  quantitative  poetry; 
for  that  the  rhythmical  in  some  way  grew  out  of  the  metrical 
practice,  we  may  now  assume  without  fear  of  serious  contradiction. 
The  ancient  culture  was  still  in  a  sense  the  ideal,  and  education 
still  followed  ancient  lines ,  though  the  spheres  of  its  influence 
were  becoming  more  and  more  narrowly  confined.  Schoolbooks 
were  shortened  and  simplified  —  always  the  symptom  of  an 
attempt  to  attain  in  a  shorter  time  or  under  less  favorable  con- 
ditions the  mastery  which  previous  ages  possessed.  The  study  of 
men  and  their  works  had  indeed  long  been  superceded  by  the 
manual  which  contained  in  abstract  all  that  it  was  necessary  to 
know.  A  disproportionate  amount  of  attention  was  paid  to  the 
mechanical  structure  of  a  literary  product.  This  was  the  result 
partly  of  a  want  of  thoughts  which  called  for  expression ,  and 
partly  of  the  condition  of  the  language.  That  faultlessly  correct 
observance  of  quantity,  for  instance,  which  had  once  been  the 
second  nature  of  the  cultured  man ,  had  no  doubt  become  rare 
even  in  the  instructors  and  the  models  of  good  taste ,  to  say  no- 
thing of  the  poeple  in  general.  If  acquired  at  all,  it  must  have 
been  the  result  of  long  and  patient  effort.  Some  parts  of  the 
language  were  indeed  falling  into  irreparable  decay,  as  for  in- 
stance the  endings  of  the  words.  No  living  pronunciation  was  in 
this  latter  point  any  longer  a  safeguard  against  metrical  faults. 
"Whoever  wished  to  write  quantitative  verse  correctly,  was  obliged, 
in  this  particular  at  least,  to  learn  it  purely  from  the  rules.  In 
other  words,  Latin  had  for  metrical  purposes  become  in  part  a 
dead  language. 


-     67     — 

We  must  not  suppose,  however,  that  the  zeal  of  the  verse- 
writers  abated  in  the  least  in  the  face  of  these  difficulties.  Some 
there  were,  to  be  sure,  who  proved  unequal  to  the  task  wherever 
special  vigilance  was  demanded.  But  in  general  those  who  pro- 
fessed to  write  metrical  poetry  were  fully  conscious  of  all  the 
obligations  imposed  by  the  rules  of  the  art.  We  are  somewhat 
surprised  to  see  how  closely  the  late  metrical  hymns,  for  instance, 
observe  the  rules  of  quantity  and  hiatus  (for  a  detailed  statement 
see  p.  5ff.  and  Appendix  II,  F). 

But  the  difficulties  encountered  by  these  metrical  hymnists 
did  not  lie  in  the  language  alone.  Every  detail  in  the  whole 
process  of  transformation  which  has  been  traced  in  the  preceding 
chapters,  the  shifting  of  the  unstable  syllables,  the  breaking  up  of 
the  verse  into  equal  parts,  as  well  as  the  loss  of  resolution  and  eli- 
sion, served  to  cramp  the  verse  itself  and  to  hinder  the  poet's  free- 
dom of  expression.  The  possible  combinations  of  words  had  become 
very  few  indeed,  and  the  cases  were  surely  not  rare  within  a  single 
short  hymn ,  when  the  poet  would  be  obliged  to  go  out  of  his 
way  to  find  a  word  or  a  form  of  expression  that  would  at  the 
same  time  suit  the  thought  and  the  crippled  metre.  And  all  this 
at  a  time  when  it  became  from  year  to  year  a  greater  problem 
to  suit  the  words  to  the  intelligence  of  the  poeple. 

We  can  best  realize  the  hardship  of  metrical  versification,  if 
we  observe  some  of  the  methods  employed  by  the  writers.  The 
most  common  cause  of  faults  was,  as  we  saw,  the  fading  of  the 
final  consonant  and  of  the  distinction  between  long  and  short  in 
the  final  vowel.  An  unusual  effort  was  necessary ,  therefore ,  at 
once  to  avoid  hiatus  and  to  make  sure  of  a  long  sj^llable  in  the 
arsis.  The  device  employed  in  the  attempt  to  do  this,  was  to 
have  as  few  as  possible  of  the  initial  syllables  in  thesis  begin 
with  a  vowel. 

In  the  case  of  Horace,  Ausonius  and  Prudentius,  the  propor- 
tion of  initial  vowels  to  the  total  number  of  words  beginning  in 
thesis  in  the  iambic  dimeter  (not  counting  the  first  syllable  of  the 
verse),  is  from  about  one  out  of  four  to  one  out  of  five  and  a 
half.  But  as  early  as  Ambrosius  we  find  it  about  one  out  of  13, 
in  Sedulius  it  is  one  out  of  27,  and  in  the  hymns  attributed  to 
Gregory,  one  out  of  12.  Individual  poets  with  a  facile  pen,  like 
Fortunatus,  and  individual  hymns  like  "iam  sexta  sensim  solvitur" 
and  "deus  qui  certis  legibus"  keep  close  to  the  old  proportion, 
but  on  the  average  the  proportion  is  much  lower  in  the  metrical 
hymns   than  in   the   earlier  and  classical   writers.     According  to 

5* 


—    68     — 

the  date  and  stage    of  development ,   the  proportion   is  as    follows 
(for  a  detailed  statement  see  Appendix  II,  D) : 
Classical 
Time  of  Ambrosius 


5G 

out 

of 

275 

or 

1 

out  of  4.9  + 

176 

)) 

» 

922 

)j 

1 

«  „  5-2  + 

83 

n 

n 

611 

« 

1 

„  „  7.4- 

35 

n 

H 

320 

V 

1 

«  „  9-1  + 

Sedulius  to  Bade 

Carolingian  period 

Metrical  hymns  of  )  -,  p-o  -.070         1  q  n  1 

/.      .   ,  —  152     „     „    1373    „    1     „     „    9.0  + 

uncertam  date   ) 

Metrical  hymns  with   )  -.0  1  a7         1  q  q 

.   .     1   ,,  —     18     „      „      167    „    1     „     „    9.3  - 

unmetrical  theses    ) 

Early  rhythmical  —  160  „  „  744  „  1  „  „  4.6V2 
We  see  that  the  proportion  of  words  beginning  in  thesis  with 
an  initial  vowel  was  about  the  same  in  the  metrical  dimeters  of 
classical  times,  which  were  practically  unaffected  by  metrical  and 
linguistic  difficulties,  and  in  the  rhythmical  dimeters,  where  these 
difficulties  no  longer  existed ;  but  that  in  the  later  metrical  hymns, 
where  an  effort  was  necessary  to  maintain  the  quantity,  the  ave- 
rage proportion  was  only  about  half  as  high,  and  in  many  individ- 
ual cases  much  lower  than  that. 

That  under  conditions  like  these  the  metrical  form  should 
have  been  abandoned  in  the  hymns ,  is  not  strange.  The  wonder 
is  rather  that  it  did  not  die  out  altogether.  But  it  continued  to 
hold  its  own,  and  for  four  or  five  centuries  after  Ambrosius, 
practically  the  only  hymns  of  which  we  know  the  author,  are  me- 
trical in  form.  Further  than  that,  every  revival  of  culture  meant 
a  revival  of  metrical  versification.  These  facts  can  be  well  ex- 
plained only  on  the  assumption  that  it  was  considered  a  nobler 
occupation  to  write  metrical  than  to  write  rhythmical  poetry. 
The  rhythmical  hymns  are,  as  a  fact,  classed  with  the  "cantica 
vulgarium  poetarum,"  ^)  and  rhythmical  poems  are  given  to  the 
world  with  an  apology  for  their  form,  which  is  spoken  of  as 
prose  rather  than  poetry^).  With  the  special  help  of  God,  one 
poet  hopes  to  be  able  to  write  metrically^),  while  another  feels 
sure  that  even  if  his  verses  can  not  be  called  metrical,  they  may 
at  any  rate  be  classed  as  rhythmical  ^).  Still  another  ^)  is  surer 
of  his  results  : 

1)  Bede  in  Keil,  G.  L.  VII,  258. 

2)  The  end  of  the  Carmen  de  Synodo  Ticinensi ,  (Waitz,  SS.  rerum  Langob. 
et  Italic,  p.  181)  A.  D.  ca.  698.  Compare  the  heading  of  a  rhythmical  poem 
Poet.  Lat.  med.  aev.  I,  79  "Alphabetum  de  bonis  sacerdotibus  prosa  compositum." 

3)  Smaragdus,  ca.  800  A.  D.  Poet.  Lat.  med.  aev.  I,  619  (2.  Stanza). 

4)  Milo,  9!^  century.     Poet.  Lat.  med.  aev.  Ill,  674,  1.  1037. 

5)  Paulus  Albarus,  mid.  of  9.  century.    Poet.  Lat.  med.  aev.  Ill,  129,  1.  21. 


—    69    — 

Ergo  vos  cigni  lautique  decore  pavones, 
Cum  suavi  meatim  philoinela  clucite  carmen 
Et  pedibus  metricis  rithmi  contemnite  monstra. 

The  ability  to  write  metrical  poetry  was  a  badge  of  culture, 
as  it  were,  and  placed  the  poet  in  direct  line  of  succession  to  the 
metrical  nobility  of  the  past.  Skill  in  writing  verses  had  in 
former  times  been  one  of  the  accomplishments  of  every  man  of 
good  breeding,  and  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  all  eyes  were 
still  turned  backward.  Up  to  the  ninth  or  tenth  century  rhyth- 
mical hymns  were  in  all  probability  less  numerous  than  metrical 
hymns ,  and  were  certainlj^  as  a  general  thing  held  in  smaller 
esteem.  But  with  all  that,  rhythmical  versification  was  better 
suited  to  the  circumstances  and  destined  in  the  end  to  survive 
its  competitor. 

The  question  just  how  rhythmical  h}'mn  -  writing  began,  is 
hard  to  answer  on  account  of  the  almost  utter  absence  of  reli- 
able dates  for  the  early  specimens.  One  thing  seems  however  to 
be  certain.  The  early  rhythmical  hymns  did  not  arise  out  of  a 
single  metrical  type,  but  reflect  the  various  forms  of  the  metrical 
hymns  during  the  whole  of  their  transformation,  which ,  as  we 
saw,  resulted  in  harmony  of  accent  and  ictus  at  the  end  of  the 
verse.  Some  of  the  rhythmical  hj^mns  of  the  iambic  dimeter 
pattern,  for  instance,  have  conflict  of  accent  and  ictus  at  the  end 
of  the  line  to  a  considerable  extent.  Of  the  rhythmical  hymns 
which  grew  out  of  the  trochaic  tetrameter  this  is  not  true,  to  be 
sure,  but  neither  is  it  true  of  any  of  the  later  metrical  specimens 
in  this  metre.  For  certain  reasons  which  we  mentioned  on  p.  57, 
the  trochaic  tetrameter  developed  along  this  line  more  rapidly 
than  the  iambic  dimeter,  so  that  the  former  verse  had  completely 
finished  its  accentual  development  before  rhythmical  hymn-writing 
began. 

The  whole  transformation  of  the  metrical  forms,  iambic  as 
well  as  trochaic,  seems  to  have  practically  reached  its  conclusion 
within  less  than  a  century  from  the  time  of  Ambrosius.  Marti- 
anus  Capella  no  longer  has  conflict  of  accent  and  ictus  at  the  end 
of  his  iambic  dimeters ,  and  Sedulius  has  but  nine  cases  of  it  in 
92  lines.  A  little  later  than  that,  about  the  year  470,  we  have  a 
rhythmical  poem  by  Auspicius,  composed  of  158  iambic  dimeters  (six 
irregular  lines  being  omitted  from  the  count),  in  which  but  a  single 
line  ends  in  a  conflict.  To  be  sure  we  have  metrical  hymns  in  iam- 
bic dimeter  later  than  this,  which  have  conflict  of  accent  and  ictus 
at  the  end  of  the  verse,  but  the  cases  of  conflict  are  in  most  of  them 


—     70    — 

very  few,  and  to  be  accounted  for  either  by  the  difficulty  of 
avoiding  conflict  altogether  in  the  metrical  form  of  this  metre, 
or  by  a  possible  imitation  of  the  older  manner;  for  we  must  re- 
member that  lij-mns  of  all  patterns  were  constantly  used  by  the 
church.  Likewise  there  were  no  doubt  rhythmical  hymns  with 
this  conflict,  composed  later  than  the  fifth  century,  though  in  the 
case  of  these  the  definite  dates  are  so  few,  that  we  are  unable 
to  show  it. 

The  list  of  hymns  previously  mentioned  (p.  18),  whose  date 
is  not  later  than  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  will  serve  for 
comparison.  Of  the  two  rhythmical  specimens  among  these  hymns, 
one  has  three  conflicts  of  accent  and  ictus  at  the  end  of  the  line, 
the  other  has  eight.  The  metrical  hymns  (omitting  those  which 
belong  to  Ambrosius)  have  conflict  at  the  end  of  one ,  two,  three, 
five  and  fourteen  lines  respectively.  This  wide  variety  of  the 
early  hj'mns,  both  rhythmical  and  metrical,  in  respect  to  the  degree 
of  coincidence  of  accent  and  ictus  found  in  them  ,  shows  that  the 
two  kinds  of  verse  did  not  develop  separately.  But  that  the 
younger  form,  which  hardly  had  recognition  and  was  but  just 
finding  its  waj^ ,  should  have  influenced  the  old  established  form 
with  the  teaching  of  the  schools  and  the  practice  of  centuries 
behind  it,  is  out  of  the  question. 

If  we  examine  the  hymns  which  seem  to  represent  the  be- 
ginnings of  rhythmical  poetry,  we  find  two  quite  distinct  classes. 
In  the  one  class  the  unmetrical  syllables  apparently  entered 
against  the  will  and  intention  of  the  writer,  who  meant  to  adhere 
to  the  quantitative  form ,  but  was  unequal  to  the  problem  pre- 
sented by  the  condition  of  the  metre  and  of  the  language.  This  is  the 
same  class  of  metrical  faults  which  we  find  here  and  there  in  the  more 
strictly  metrical  hymns  and  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  in  the 
other  poetry  of  the  time.  We  may  say  in  a  general  way  that 
all  those  unmetrical  hymns  are  to  be  classed  under  this  head,  in 
which  a  comparatively  small  number  of  faults  is  found  practically 
confined  to  one  or  two  points  in  the  verse.  This  includes  such 
hymns  as  Mone  I,  91,  III,  431  and  459,  Wackernagel  no.  101,  and 
all  those  hymns  which  have  metrical  arses  and  unmetrical  theses 
(cf.  the  tables  p.  7,  Iambic  Dimeter  C  and  parts  of  D). 

But  while  faults  like  these,  no  doubt,  prepared  the  way  for 
a  more  complete  departure  from  metrical  form,  it  would  hardly 
be  possible  for  rhythmical  poetry ,  such  as  we  have  it  in  the 
early  rhythmical  hymns ,  to  develop ,  as  long  as  the  purpose  of 
the   writers  was  to   write  quantitative   verse.    For  either   would 


—     71     — 

adverse  criticism  and  reference  to  models  and  rules  again  and 
again  correct  tlie  faults  which  occurred,  as  was  the  case  with  the 
hexameter,  or  the  task  would  finally  be  given  up  in  despair.  A 
voluntary  departure  from  quantity  is  not  to  be  thought  of  in  the 
case  of  a  writer  whose  efforts  arc  directed  to  writing  metrical 
verse. 

There  remains  the  possibility  that  the  metrical  form  was 
given  up  for  such  reasons  as  those  which  prompted  Augustine  to 
write  his  Psalmus  contra  Partem  Donati.  If  we  stop  to  think 
however,  we  see  that  such  undertakings  as  the  humble  and  prosaic 
task  of  enlightening  the  ignorant  or  preacliing  against  the  pagans 
or  heretics ,  were  very  different  things  from  the  lyric  poetry  in 
which  the  soul  reached  its  heights  of  exaltation.  Horace  was  sure- 
ly neither  the  last  nor  the  only  Latin  writer  who  had  a  "musa 
pedestris."  If  we  consider  further  that  rhythmical  poetry  could 
not  get  a  standing ,  or  get  any  sort  of  recognition  through  its 
form ,  but  that  onl^^  the  inherent  power  and  beauty  of  a  rhyth- 
mical hymn  could  give  it  recognition  and  acceptance  in  spite  of 
its  lowly  dress,  we  are  all  the  more  convinced  that  the  writing 
of  rhythmical  hymns  can  not  have  come  from  any  conscious  or 
unconscious  departure  from  a  metrical  standard  so  long  as  this 
was  considered  the  correct  and  desirable  form  by  the  writer  in 
question. 

This  initial  impulse  is  rather  to  be  found,  as  has  already 
been  implied,  in  the  production  of  a  rhythmical  masterpiece. 
Inspired  by  the  music  and  the  content  of  the  songs  which  were 
sung  at  the  services ,  well  acquainted  with  their  outward  form 
and  general  manner ,  though ,  it  may  be ,  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
rules  of  the  metre ,  some  poet  of  native  genius  in  all  probability 
produced  the  first  great  rh^'thmical  hymn,  which  by  its  excellence 
gained  recognition  and  invited  to  further  imitation  along  the  same 
line.  This  may  well  have  been  the  history  of  such  a  hymn  as 
"Rex  aeterne  domine,"  with  its  slight  irregularities  in  the  length 
of  the  line  and  in  the  penultimate  syllable  of  the  verse,  which 
however  in  spite  of  these  pecularities  evidently  stood  in  high 
regard,  to  judge  from  the  frequent  references  to  it,  and  is  called 
"hymnus  ille  praeclarus"  by  Bede  in  distinction  from  other  rhyth- 
mical poems  (Keil,  G.  L.,  VII,  258).  When  this  point  was  once 
reached,  and  the  free  imitation  of  metrical  h^'mns  had  gained  a 
certain  recognition  as  a  method  of  hymn -writing  distinct  from 
that  employed  in  the  metrical  hymns ,  then  the  way  was  open 
also  for  those  versifiers  whose  knowledge  of  ancient  prosody  was 


-    72    - 

not  sufficient  to  help  them  over  the  existing  state  of  the  language, 
and  also  for  those  who ,  possessing  this  knowledge  in  a  sufficient 
degree,  shrank  from  the  hindrances  which  the  cramped  form  of 
metrical  verse  placed  in  the  way  of  free  expression. 

The  free  imitation  of  metrical  poetry  was  not  by  any  means 
an  unknown  practice  in  the  late  centuries  of  the  empire.  The 
effort  was  of  course  to  reproduce  in  a  general  way  the  impression 
which  the  original  made  upon  the  ear.  In  doing  this  the  imitator 
naturally  reproduced  those  parts  most  accurate^  which  impressed 
the  ear  most,  i.  e.  the  parts  preceding  the  caesura  and  the  end  of 
the  line.  Commodian's  imitation  of  the  hexameter  was,  no  doubt, 
of  this  kind  ^).  So  also  was  that  curious  reproduction  of  the 
spirit  of  Plautine  verse  in  the  Querolus,  whose  author  tells  us 
"prodire  autem  in  agendum  non  auderemus  cum  clodo  pede,  nisi 
magnos  praeclarosque  in  hac  parte  sequeremur  duces."  Whether 
the  "magni  praeclarique  duces"  are  Plautus  and  Terence  or  men 
of  the  author's  own  day,  it  is  clear  that  he  considered  his  manner 
of  composition  to  be  not  without  precedent.  At  any  rate,  to 
treat  the  Querolus  simply  as  a  piece  of  highly  rhythmic  prose, 
as  Norden  does  (Antike  Kunstprosa  p.  630),  is  certainly  impossible, 
since  the  Plautine  verses  and  verse-endings  found  in  the  Querolus 
in  every  sentence,  were  of  a  kind  not  used  in  prose.  Free  imi- 
tations of  the  hexameter  and  the  elegiac  distich  are  found  abun- 
dantly among  the  tomb -inscriptions  of  nearly  all  periods.  They 
vary  in  degree  of  accuracy  from  prose  with  a  few  reminiscences 
of  the  beginnings  and  endings  of  verses  (Biicheler  699,  708,  733, 
1581  =  CIL.  V,  6742;  VI,  18086;  Rossi  II,  294;  Fabretti  456), 
to  poems  constructed  as  regularly  as  the  verses  of  Commodian 
(CIL.  VIII,  7156  =  Biicheler  512).  Free  imitations  of  iambic 
verses  among  the  inscriptions  are  more  rare.  It  will  suffice  to 
mention  the  two  most  extensive  specimens  of  this  class  (CIL. 
VIII,  646  and  647).  In  the  sixth  century  we  meet  an  instance 
the  same  kind  of  imitation  in  the  Vita  SS.  Abbatum  Agaunensium, 
chapter  10  (Arndt,  Kleine  Denkmaler  aus  d.  Merovingerzeit,  p.  20). 
Another  is  the  epitaph  of  St.  Felix  f  724  (Waitz,  rer.  longob.  et 
ital.  p.  375,  cf.  also  Meyer,  Anfang  u.  Ursprung). 

A  higher  form  of  imitation  than  that  last  mentioned ,  or 
perhaps  rather  a  development  along  rhythmical  lines ,  is  seen  in 
the  riddles  printed  at  the   end  of  Meyer's  treatise.     Meyer  refers 


1)  cf.  Meyer's  exposition  of  the  characteristics  of  Commodian's  verse  (Anfang 
u.  Ursprung  d.  lat.  u.  gr.  rbyth.  Dichtung). 


-    78    - 

to  the  fact  (p.  279)  that  the  first  half  of  these  latter  verses  is 
uniformly  composed  of  six,  the  second  half  of  eight  syllables. 
This  restriction  of  the  hexameter  to  a  single  type  was  no  doubt 
the  result  of  the  very  sound  feeling  that  variable  metres  like  the 
hexameter  and  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses  of  the  drama  were 
not  suited  to  being  reproduced  rhythmical^.  Many  of  the  inscrip- 
tions ,  even  of  those  otherwise  metrically  correct ,  show  how  easy 
it  was  in  the  case  of  these  metres  to  wander  from  the  legitimate 
number  of  feet.  It  was  far  different  in  the  case  of  lines  with  a 
fixed  number  of  syllables  and  a  hard  and  fast  internal  composition, 
such  as  the  verses  of  the  hymns  had  become.  These  latter  verses 
had,  besides  ,  another  advantage  in  the  brevity  of  the  recurring 
])arts,  which  in  the  trochaic  tetrameter  had  come  to  consist,  for 
the  most  part  of  four,  respectively  three  syllables.  Another  ad- 
vantage which  the  common  metres  of  the  hymns  possessed  was 
the  fixed  relation  which  had  grown  up  between  the  accent  and 
the  arsis.  In  addition  to  all  these  formative  and  restrictive  in- 
fluences, there  was  the  fact  that  the  hymns  were  intended  for  a 
definite  place  in  a  fixed  ceremony ,  and  for  a  definite  manner  of 
execution,  for  the  writing  of  hymns  placed  the  same  restrictions 
upon  the  poet  that  the  painting  of  an  altar-piece  places  upon  a 
painter.  From  all  these  circumstances  it  came  about  that  only  those 
metres  which  were  used  in  the  hymns,  developed  rh^^tbmical  forms 
that  possessed  sufficient  vitality  to  survive  and  supplant  the  met- 
rical forms  out  of  which  they  grew. 

That  this  off  -  hand  imitation  of  metrical  hymns  must  leave 
its  traces  in  the  rhythmical  hymns  produced,  and  that  there  must 
be  differences  between  these  early  rhythmical  hymns  and  those 
of  later  centuries ,  is  natural,  and  we  should  be  surprised  if  it 
were  not  so.  The  prevalence  of  the  conflict  between  accent  and 
ictus  at  the  end  of  the  line  in  the  early  rhythmical  hymns  after 
the  pattern  of  the  iambic  dimeter,  has  already  been  referred  to. 
The  continuance  of  this  conflict  resulted  naturally  for  the  metrical 
hymns  from  the  conditions  of  their  construction.  But  for  the 
rhythmical  hymns  no  such  restriction  existed,  since  they  were  no 
longer  bound  by  the  rules  which  involved  it  (cf.  pp.  56—7).  Its 
presence  in  the  rhythmical  hymns  can  only  be  explained  on  the 
ground  of  imitation. 

The  departures  from  the  quantitative  form  in  the  early 
rhythmical  hymns  are,  on  the  whole,  considerably  less  extensive 
than  in  the  later  ones,  and  one  often  finds  in  the  former  whole 
lines   and   sometimes  several   lines   in   succession   which  have  no 


—    74    — 

metrical  faults  at  all.  In  an  age  when  such  models  and  standards 
as  existed  were  still  classical  and  the  vast  majority  of  the  hymns 
in  use  were  still  metrical,  too  wide  a  departure  from  these  com- 
monly recognized  standards  would  at  once  attract  unfavorable 
attention,  and  no  doubt  bring  upon  it  the  verdict  of  lawlessness 
and  bad  taste.  We  find  the  line  between  what  was  allowed  and 
what  was  not  allowed  in  rhythmic  verse,  distinctly  drawn,  for 
instance,  by  Bede  (Keil,  Gr.  L.,  VII,  258):  "Metrum  est  ratio  cum 
modulatione,  rhythmus  modulatio  sine  ratione.  plerumque  tamen 
casu  quodam  invenies  etiam  rationem  in  rhj^thmo,  non  artifici  mo- 
deratione  servata,  sed  sono  et  ipsa  modulatione  ducente,  quem 
vulgares  poetae  necesse  est  rustice,  docti  faciant  docte.  Quomodo 
et  ad  instar  iambici  metri  pulcherrime  factus  est  hymnus  ille 
praeclarus, 

Rex  aeterne  domine 
et   alii    Ambrosiani  non   pauci.     item    ad   formam    metri   trochaici 
canunt  hymnum  de  die  iudicii  per  alphabetum, 
Apparebit  repentina." 

That  the  church  was  fully  alive  to  the  difference  between 
good  and  bad  rh^'thms ,  appears  from  canon  24  (23)  of  the  council 
of  Tours  (A.  D.  567)  which  makes  plain  to  us  the  grounds  on 
which  hymns  were  excluded  from  the  service.  "Et  licet  libros 
Ambrosianos  habeamus  in  canone,  tamen  quoniam  reliquorum  sunt 
aliqui,  qui  digni  sunt  forma  cantare ,  volumus  libenter  amplectere 
praeterea,  quorum  auctorum  nomina  fuerint  in  limine  praenotata ; 
quoniam  quae  fide  constiterint,  dicendi  ratione  non  obstant.''  Pro- 
vided the  hymns  are  orthodox  in  sentiment,  no  attention  is  to  be 
paid  to  their  manner  of  expression,  only  to  the  question  whether  they 
are  "digni  forma  cantare."  What  the  standard  of  excellence  in  form 
was  in  those  days  is  apparent  in  the  light  of  the  passages  quoted  on 
pp.  68 — 9.  At  the  same  time  there  were,  as  we  know,  rhythmical 
hymns  among  the  "hymni  Ambrosiani"  (cf.  the  passage  from  Bede 
just  quoted  —  "et  alii  Ambrosiani  non  pauci.").  "Digni  forma 
cantare"  can  therefore  only  refer  to  those  rhythmical  hymns 
which  were  worthy  to  be  placed  by  the  side  of  the  metrical  ones 
in  their  form ,  i.  e.  those  whose  departure  from  quantitative 
correctness  was  not  so  apparent. 

As  good  taste  had  formerly  placed  a  check  uj)on  the  intro- 
duction of  metrical  feet  into  prose ,  so  now  it  seems  to  have  set 
a  limit  beyond  which  unmetrical  syllables  should  not  be  admitted 
into  rhythmical  poetry.  Of  course  this  was  a  matter  for  the  ear 
rather  than  for  the  metrical  intelligence  to  decide,    since,    if  our 


-     75    - 

theory  of  "free  imitation"  is  correct  —  and  the  expressions"  sono 
et  ipsa  modulatione  ducente,"  "ad  instar  iambici  metri,"  "ad  for- 
mam  metri  trochaicr'  in  the  passage  just  quoted  from  Bede ,  give 
it  additional  confirmation  *)  —  rbythmical  poetry  was  based  upon 
the  natural  judgment  of  the  ear  instead  of  being  based  upon 
rules.  Nevertheless  standards  must  be  conformed  to ,  and  in  this 
case  the  standards  were  the  impressions  produced  upon  the  ear 
by  the  metrical  hymns. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  how  these  early  rhythmical  poets 
avoided  the  charge  of  "rusticity"  in  cases  where  the  temptation 
to  admit  unmetrical  sjdiables  was  unusually  great.  The  case 
which  at  once  occurs  to  us  is  the  third  arsis  of  the  iambic  dimeter. 
We  have  seen  (pp.  56 — 7)  that  the  difficulty  of  this  syllable  for  the 
metrical  form  of  the  verse  in  question  lay  in  the  great  demand  it 
made  upon  the  words  which  had  both  a  short  penult  and  a  long 
antepenult.  The  strain  to  which  the  metrical  form  was  subjected, 
was  therefore  greatest  and  the  tendency  to  the  unrestrained  ad- 
mission of  unmetrical  syllables  was  strongest  at  this  point.  While 
a  free  admision  of  these  syllables  was  a  necessity,  it  was  no  less 
a  necessity  that  the  verse  should  remain  acceptable  to  the  ear, 
so  as  not  to  fall  back  into  the  contempt  from  which  it  had  but 
hardly  risen. 

What  happened  was  that  the  language  went  back  at  a 
bound  to  its  condition  before  the  introduction  of  Greek  metres 
had  fixed  the  quantity  of  doubtful  syllables  and  had  divided  them 
into  two  opposing  camps  ot  iong  and  short.  Where  a  promiscuous 
admission  of  short  syllables  would  have  appeared  lawless  and 
would  have  provoked  criticism ,  a  select  class  of  them  seem  to 
have  entered  unchallenged.  These  were  the  syllables  in  which 
the  short  vowel  was  followed  by  a  sonant  or  a  liquid,  i.  e.  by 
consonants  whose  sound  is  capable  of  extension.  So,  for  in- 
stance ,  by  holding  fast  the  first  syllable  of  "dominus,"  we  can 
make  it  resemble  a  long  syllable  much  more  nearly,  than  is  pos- 
sible with  the  first  syllable  of  "capitis,"  where  the  short  vowel  is 
followed  by  a  mute. 


1)  cf.  Walafrid  Strabo,  de  rebus  ecclesiasticis,  ch.  25.  "In  officiis  quoque 
quae  beatus  Benedictus  abbas,  omni  sanctitate  praecipuus ,  ordinavit,  hymni  di- 
cuntur  per  boras  canonicas:  quos  Ambrosianos  ipse  nominans ,  vel  illos  vult  in- 
telligi  quos  confecit  Ambrosius,  vel  alios  ad  imitationem  Ambrosiaiiorum  compo- 
sites." Cf.  earlier  in  the  same  chapter  "hymni  metric!  ac  rhythmici  in  Ambrosi 
anis  officiis." 


—    76     — 

In  some  of  the  early  rhythmical  hymns  of  the  iambic  dimeter 
pattern,  short  vowels  followed  by  any  one  of  the  latter  consonants  are 
hardly  admitted  to  the  third  arsis  at  all,  and  the  place,  when  not 
occupied  by  a  long  syllable,  is  nearly  always  filled  by  a  short  vowel 
followed  by  a  sonant  or  a  liquid.  This  is  notably  the  case  in 
tlie  hymn  "rex  aeterne  domine"  which,  as  will  be  recalled  (cf.  p.  18) 
is  the  only  rh^^thmical  h^^mn  in  a  total  of  ten  hymns  laid  down 
by  bishop  Aurelian  in  his  regula  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century,  and  which  was  also  selected  by  Bede  as  a  specimen  of 
a  rhythmical  iambic  hymn  "pulcherrime  factus."  This  hymn  has 
14  short  syllables  in  the  third  arsis ,  of  which  in  13  cases  the 
short  vowel  is  followed  by  a  sonant  or  liquid  and  in  only  one 
case  by  a  mute.  In  the  only  other  rhythmical  iambic  hymn  which 
we  know  with  certainty  to  be  older  than  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century,  "bis  ternas  horas  explicans,"  there  are  seven  short  syl- 
lables in  the  third  arsis,  in  all  of  which  the  short  vowel  is  followed 
by  a  sonant  or  a  liquid.  We  have  already  seen  (p.  28)  that  the 
same  rule  holds  in  the  Psalmus  of  Augustine,  where  of  a  total  of 
534  trochaic  verse-endings,  31  have  the  penultimate  syllable  short. 
Of  these  31  there  are  but  three  cases  in  which  the  short  vowel 
is  followed  by  a  mute  (vetet,  cruce,  datumst). 

Another  factor  which  helped  the  rhythmical  hymns  to  repro- 
duce approximately  the  effect  of  their  quantitative  models ,  was 
the  accent.  We  found  in  the  later  inscriptions  in  hexameter, 
that  unmetrical  syllables  seem  to  have  attracted  less  attention  in 
those  arses  where  the  accent  and  ictus  regularly  coincided.  If 
unmetrical  arses  of  this  kind  came  nearer  to  producing  the  same 
impression  which  metrical  arses  produced,  it  would  also  be  true 
that  short  syllables  immediately  before  or  after  the  accented  syl- 
lable would,  when  employed  as  arses,  produce  the  impression  of 
a  more  decided  and  radical  departure  from  the  quantitative  model. 
This  would  be  true  of  all  short  syllables  in  the  positions  mentioned, 
except  when  these  syllables  stood  at  the  end  of  the  word  where, 
as  we  saw,  an  extensive  departure  from  the  metrical  form  had 
already  existed  for  a  long  time.  The  final  syllable  in  itself  was, 
moreover,  in  this  present  period  so  thoroughly  uncertain,  that  the 
feeling  for  its  ancient  quantity  must  have  been  all  but  lost  in 
ordinary  pronunciation.  But  aside  from  the  final  syllable,  other 
short  syllables  immediately  preceding  or  following  the  accent, 
were  as  a  general  thing  very  rarely  admitted  to  the  arsis  in  the 
rhythmical  hymns.  There  are  cases,  to  be  sure,  where  these  syl- 
lables are  admitted  somewhat  freely,   but  they  are   comparatively 


—     77     - 

few.  It  is  interesting  to  find  a  close  connection  between  the  latter 
practice  and  that  of  admitting  long  syllables  to  the  last  thesis  of 
the  verse.  The  hymn  "summi  largitor  praemii"  which  we  found 
(p.  20)  to  have  10  long  syllables  in  the  last  thesis,  has  the  scan- 
sions supplicamus ,  piaculis  ,  rogare  ,  capiamus  ,  gloriatur.  The 
trochaic  hj-mn  "Archangelum  mirum  magnum"  which  was  men- 
tioned in  the  same  connection,  has  13  unaccentual  short  syllables 
in  the  arsis.  The  practice  is  found  in  other  cases  as  can  be  seen 
from  the  detailed  statement  (Appendix  II,  F),  but  the  hymns  in  which 
such  scansions   are  of  more   than   occasional  occurrence,   are  rare. 

The  restricting  influence  of  classical  models  and  traditions  is 
very  apparent  when  we  observe  the  peculiarities  of  versification 
in  Britain  and  Ireland,  where  classical  standards  had  not  become 
so  firmly  rooted.  In  the  five  poems  found  among  the  letters  of 
Boniface  (Jaff'e,  Mouumenta  Moguntiua),  which  probably  belong  in 
part  at  least  to  Aldhelm,  there  are  122  unaccentual  scansions 
with  a  short  sj'Uable  in  the  arsis  in  586  lines  of  eight  syllables. 
In  76  additional  lines  of  the  same  length  found  here  and  there  at 
the  ends  of  letters  in  the  same  collection,  there  are  15  such  scan- 
sions. In  the  Antiphonarium  of  Bangor  there  are  three  rhythmical 
hymns  of  the  pattern  mentioned ,  all  of  them  abounding  in  scan- 
sions of  the  kind  under  consideration.  In  the  hymn  on  St.  Comgill, 
there  are  58  in  200  lines  of  eight  syllables,  in  a  series  of  hymns 
"ad  horas,"  there  are  seven  such  scansions  in  40  lines,  and  in  the 
"Memoria  abbatum  nostrorum,"  seven  in  42  lines.  The  hymn  on 
St.  Patrick,  though  trochaic,  also  has  a  considerable  number. 
Perhaps  the  most  extraordinary  example  is  a  poem  of  unknown 
origiu,  an  abecedarius  against  the  anti-trinitarians ,  (published  by 
Boucherie ,  Melanges  latins  et  bas-latins)  which  has  280  lines  of 
eight  syllables  and  81  unaccentual  scansions  with  a  short  syllable 
in  the  arsis.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  none  of  the  poems 
mentioned  is,  in  all  probability,  later  than  the  eighth  century,  and 
some  are  perhaps  as  early  as  the  sixth. 

If  there  were  local  differences  in  the  handling  of  the  metres 
in  the  early  rhythmical  period ,  differences  can  also  be  traced  be- 
tween the  method  of  rhythmical  versification  employed  in  the  hymns 
and  that  employed  in  other  branches  of  writing,  especially  those  in 
which  the  form  is  usually  subordinate  to  the  content.  The  letter 
of  Auspicius  to  Arbogastes,  though  as  early  as  470  A.  D.,  shows 
no  preference  in  the  character  of  the  short  syllables  admitted  to 
the  third  arsis  of  its  rhythmical  iambic  dimeters,  such  as  we  found 
in  the  hymns  of  the   period.    Four  of  the  five   poems  referred  to 


—    78    — 

above,  which  go  under  the  name  of  Aldhelm,  are  occasional  pieces 
of  narrative  and  personal  compliment,  such  as  might  be  sent  in  a 
letter  to  a  friend.  This,  we  saw,  was  actually  the  use  which  was 
made  of  the  shorter  pieces  found  in  the  same  collection.  The 
abecedarius  against  the  anti-trinitarians  reminds  one  of  the  Psalmus 
contra  Partem  Donati  and  Commodian's  Carmen  Apologeticum. 
The  long  hymni  in  honor  of  St.  Patrick  and  St.  Comgill  are  com- 
binations of  biography  and  eulogy  rather  than  hymns.  To  make 
the  list  complete ,  we  have  a  cosmography,  a  Prankish  product  of 
about  the  seventh  century,  which  is  written  in  unutterably  bar- 
barous trochaic  tetrameters  (printed  by  Pertz,  Abhandl.  d.  Berl. 
Akad.  Jahr  1845). 

In  looking  over  this  list,  the  thing  that  attracts  attention  is 
the  large  proportion  of  verses  of  the  iambic  dimeter  pattern.  It 
is  really  what  we  ought  to  expect ,  for  a  short  verse  which  was 
so  late  in  reaching  its  full  accentual  development,  and  which  always 
showed  great  irregularity  in  the  relation  between  accent  and  ictus 
in  its  first  half,  was  naturally  open  to  the  peculiarities  of  scansion 
just  mentioned  to  a  greater  extent  than  the  longer  and  more  ac- 
centual measures  which  grew  out  of  the  trochaic  tetrameter  and 
the  iambic  trimeter.  This  fact,  together  with  the  restrictions 
which  the  extensive  employment  of  the  iambic  dimeter  in  the 
hymns  placed  upon  its  free  rhythmical  development,  had  the  result, 
in  the  Carolingian  period,  of  quite  a  general  return  to  the  met- 
rical form  of  this  metre.  While  the  other  two  metres  mentioned 
were  quite  generally  used  in  a  rhythmical  form  by  good  writers 
during  this  period ,  the  iambic  dimeter  appears  in  the  rhythmical 
form  but  rarely.  Some  writers  even  use  the  metrical  form  of  the 
latter  measure  side  by  side  with  the  unmetrical  form  of  one  of 
the  others. 

It  may  have  been  this  condition  of  things  which  helped  to 
rob  the  iambic  dimeter  of  its  almost  absolute  supremacy  and  to 
make  the  trochaic  verse  the  favorite  measure  in  the  great  rhyth- 
mical period  of  the  12  th  and  13  th  centuries. 


General  Summary. 

A  brief  summary  of  the  various  stages  in  the  change  from 
quantitative  to  rhythmical  poetry,  which  have  been  traced  in  de- 
tail in  the  preceding  pages,  will  perhaps  contribute  to  a  more 
definite  conception  of  the  development  as  a  whole.  The  change 
mentioned  was  found  to  have  resulted  from  causes  within  the  Latin 
language,  with  very  slight  traces  of  influence  from  without.  The 
rhythmical  iambic  and  trochaic  verse  of  the  hymns  grew  out  of 
the  stricter  form  of  these  metres  and  is,  so  far  as  form  goes,  in 
no  sense  a  survival  of  a  popular  method  of  versification. 

The  coincidence  of  accent  and  ictus,  which  is  usually  consid- 
ered to  be  the  chief  distinguishing  feature  of  rhythmical  poetry, 
is  merely  a  phenomenon  appearing  in  certain  classes  of  verse, 
such  as  the  iambic  dimeter  and  trimeter,  the  trochaic  tetrameter 
and  the  second  half  of  the  asclepiadean,  where  circumstances  were 
peculiarly  favorable  to  its  development.  This  characteristic  is 
not  found  developed  in  the  rhythmical  forms  of  some  other  verses, 
such  as  the  dactylic  hexameter,  the  sapphic  and  the  first  half  of 
the  asclepiadean.  To  be  sure,  the  rhythmical  forms  of  the  latter 
metres  did  not  posses  the  same  vitality  as  the  rhythmical  forms 
of  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses ,  though  a  considerable  number 
of  examples  is  found.  This  fact  was  due  to  several  causes.  First, 
the  metres  referred  to  were  in  their  metrical  form  more  complex 
and  difiicult  than  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses,  and  therefore 
were  not,  from  the  start,  employed  with  the  same  frequency  for 
religious  purposes.  Then,  it  is  no  doubt  true  that  after  the  quan- 
titative structure  of  the  various  metres  had  broken  down ,  those 
verses  which  had  in  the  late  metrical  stage  developed  a  more 
or  less  complete  coincidence  between  accent  and  ictus ,  had  by 
virtue  of  this  fact  a  great  advantage  over  those  in  which  a  struc- 
tural  principle  ceased  to  exist   as  soon   as  the  rules  of   quantity 


—    80    — 

were  uo  longer  observed,  and  over  those  in  whieli  the  change  from 
metrical  to  rhythmical  form  involved  a  change  in  rhythmical  char- 
acter. A  study  of  the  origin  of  rhythmical  poetry  must  then 
necessarily  be ,  to  a  large  extent ,  a  study  of  the  development  of 
iambic  and  trochaic  verses,  and  especially  of  the  process  by  which 
they  gained  their  great  advantage  over  the  other  verses  ,  namely 
the  development  in  their  metrical  form  of  a  certain  degree  of 
coincidence  between  verse-ictus  and  word-accent. 

The  element  in  the  iambic  and  trochaic  metres  which  was 
favorable  to  the  development  of  their  accentual  quality ,  was  the 
presence ,  in  their  metrical  form ,  of  a  syllable  in  each  dipody 
which  might  be  either  long  or  short.  As  the  metrical  inscriptions 
of  the  first  four  centuries  after  Christ  show,  two  syllables  of  the 
word  were  especially  unstable  as  to  their  quantity,  the  final  syl- 
lable and  the  syllable  preceding  the  accent.  In  the  effort  to  ad- 
here to  the  strict  metrical  construction  of  the  metres  referred  to, 
these  unstable  syllables  gradually  found  their  way  more  and  more 
into  the  positions  of  the  verse  where  distinction  between  long  and 
short  was  not  required.  This  tendency  is  noticeable  to  some 
extent  in  the  metrical  hymns  of  Ambrosius  and  even  earlier.  After 
that  time  it  spread  until ,  in  the  later  metrical  and  most  of  the 
rhythmical  hymns,  practically  all  the  undetermined  theses  were 
filled  by  unstable  syllables  of  this  kind. 

Such  a  construction  of  the  iambic  and  trochaic  metres  nec- 
essarily brought  with  it  coincidence  of  accent  and  ictus  in  certain 
parts  of  the  verse,  notably  at  the  end,  and  practically  restricted 
the  prevalence  of  conflict  between  accent  and  ictus  to  a  limited 
and  fixed  number  of  feet.  So  in  the  iambic  dimeter  conflict  was 
practically  confined  to  the  first  two  feet,  in  the  trochaic  tetra- 
meter to  the  first,  second  and  sixth,  and  in  the  iambic  trimeter 
to  the  first  and  fourth.  The  last  two  feet  in  each  of  these  metres 
became,  in  the  course  of  time ,  entirely  free  from  conflict  between 
accent  and  ictus. 

When  this  whole  process  was  almost  completed ,  the  rhyth- 
mical form  of  versification  became  a  recognized  method  of  hymn- 
writing,  and  the  accentual  quality  which  had  been  gradually  de- 
veloped in  the  metrical  forms  of  the  iambic  and  trochaic  verses, 
fell  as  a  heritage  to  their  rhythmical  forms.  This  passage  from 
the  metrical  to  the  rhythmical  form  was  gradual.  The  immediate 
circumstance  which  gave  the  advantage  to  the  rhythmical  form 
and  insured  its  final  success  in  the  contest  with  its  rival,  the  met- 
rical form,   was  the  cramped  and  mechanical  method  of  construe- 


—     81     — 

tion  into  which  the  metrical  verses  had  fallen.  The  chief  cause 
of  this  narrowing  and  cramping  was ,  in  the  iambic  and  trochaic 
verses,  the  effort  to  maintain  their  strict  quantitative  character, 
which  resulted,  as  we  have  seen,  in  placing  the  metrically  unstable 
syllables  in  the  undetermined  theses.  In  the  case  of  the  asclcpia- 
dean  a  similar  result  was  produced,  in  the  later  metrical  period, 
by  the  peculiar  symmetrical  character  of  the  verse,  which,  in  the 
hands  of  unskillful  writers,  caused  it  to  tend  toward  a  division 
into  four  parts  of  three  syllables  each.  The  same  tendency  to 
division  and  the  repetition  of  like  parts  no  doubt  had  its  share 
in  helping  to  establish  in  the  middle  of  the  first  half  of  the 
trochaic  tetrameter  the  caesura  which  clung  to  that  part  of  the 
verse  throughout  its  rhythmical  career. 

But  meanwhile  other  influences  also  were  at  work.  The  res- 
olution of  long  syllables ,  a  privilege  which  iambic  and  trochaic 
verses  had  always  had,  was  almost  entirely  abandoned,  as  soon 
as  these  verses  were  employed  in  hymns  for  the  use  of  the  church. 
Further,  the  growing  instability  of  the  final  vowel  and  the  gradual 
fading  away  of  the  final  consonant  made  impossible  the  distinction 
between  syllables  which  could  and  those  which  could  not  be  elided, 
and  led  everywhere  to  devices  for  avoiding  the  necessity  of  eli- 
sion. Though  the  verses  were  thus  cramped  and  lost  their  liber- 
ties, their  obligations  in  the  matter  of  quantity  and  hiatus  still 
continued  to  be  observed.  To  make  sure,  for  instance,  of  a  long 
syllable  in  the  arsis,  when  the  syllable  came  at  the  end  of  the 
word  and  was  therefore  often  of  uncertain  quantity ,  the  device 
was  resorted  to  of  having  the  following  word  begin  with  a  con- 
sonant as  frequently  as  possible. 

From  this  state  of  things  a  welcome  means  of  escape  was 
offered  to  many  a  toiling  writer  by  the  new  rhythmical  practice 
of  writing  hymns,  which  though  still  regarded  with  suspicion, 
was  tolerated  within  certain  limits.  Since  they  were,  in  addition 
to  this  restriction,  at  first  free  imitations  of  the  quantitative  hymns 
then  in  use  in  the  churches,  many  of  these  early  rhythmical  hymns 
bear  distinct  traces  of  their  origin.  They  not  only  admit  fewer 
unmetrical  syllables  than  the  later  specimens  of  their  class ,  but 
in  a  place  like  the  third  arsis  of  the  iambic  dimeter,  where  the 
strain  upon  the  metrical  form  and  the  tendency  to  admit  unmet- 
rical syllables  were  naturally  greatest,  they  compromised  upon 
those  short  syllables  which  are  followed  by  a  sonant  or  a  liquid 
and  are  therefore,  under  stress,  capable  of  being  drawn  out  some- 
what beyond  the  length  of  other  short  syllables.     This  preference 

6 


—    82    — 

for  syllables  of  medium  length,  together  with  the  other  relics  of 
quantitative  verse,  gradually  disappeared  when  rhythmical  hymns 
became  more  numerous  and  when,  partly  also  through  the  waning 
of  classical  influences  in  general ,  a  distinction  of  form  was  no 
longer  made. 

Then,  when  rhythmical  verse  had  reached  the  end  of  its  de- 
velopment and  had  hardened  into  a  fixed  form ,  as  we  see  it  in 
the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  the  time  was  at  hand  for  a  new 
age  of  inspiration  which  was  to  use  the  various  lines  and  parts  of 
lines  in  new  combinations  and  for  new  purposes. 


Appendix  I. 

The  Transformation  of  the  Rhetorical  Clausula. 

As  is  now  well  known,  most  of  the  Latin  prose  of  the 
Empire  has  a  pronounced  rhythm,  i.  e.  those  parts  of  the  clauses 
and  sentences  immediately  preceding  the  rhetorical  pauses  show 
a  regular  succession  of  long  and  short  syllables.  From  about  the 
fourth  century  onward,  moreover,  the  ictus  in  these  cadences 
coincided  more  and  more  with  the  accent  of  the  words.  And 
later  when  distinctions  of  quantity  disappeared,  the  accentual 
rhythm  remained.  Outwardly  we  therefore  have  the  same  facts 
that  we  found  in  the  ends  of  the  contemporary  iambic  and 
trochaic  verses.  It  remains  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  the 
change  and,  if  possible,  to  find  its  cause. 

That  there  was  a  close  evolutional  relation  between  the 
accentual  clausula  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  quantitative  clau- 
sula of  the  Latin  prose  of  earlier  centuries,  was  noticed  by  Havet 
(La  Prose  metrique  de  Symmaque,  1892).  A  detailed  theory  of 
the  nature  and  cause  of  the  change  from  the  one  form  of  the 
clausula  to  the  other  was  then  published  by  W.  Meyer  in  his 
review  of  Havet's  book  in  the  Gottingische  Gelehrte  Anzeigen 
for  1893,  p.  1—26.  Contrary  to  all  his  previous  views  on  the 
origin  of  rhythmical  verse,  Meyer  concludes  that  the  change  in 
prose  was  due  to  the  increased  power  of  the  accent,  which  in  the 
3rd  and  4th  centuries,  according  to  his  view,  became  so  prominent 
„dass  beim  Sprechen  der  Accent  viel  deutlicher  hervortrat  als  die 
Quantitat  der  einzelnen  Silben"  (p.  19).  Those  forms  of  the 
metrical  clausula  in  which  the  accent  and  ictus  coincided,  he  thinks 
were  thus  preserved  in  the  rhythmical  period,  while  the  others 
died  out.  The  fact  that  this  coincidence  between  accent  and  ictus 
arose  while  quantity  was  still  rigidly  adhered  to  he  explains  as 
follows  :  ;;Die  neuen  Accentformen  werden  noch  lange  Zeit 
mehr  oder  minder  achtsam  nach  der  alten  Art  mit  langen  und 
kurzen  Silben  ausstaffirt"  (p.  20). 

6* 


—    84    - 

This  theory  has  the  weaknesses  which  we  found  in  accentual 
theories  elsewhere ,  for  it  assumes  the  very  thing  that  most  needs 
proof,  i.  e.  an  accent  sufficiently  strong  not  only  to  overcome  the 
method  of  pronunciation  which  must  have  been  current  in  Latin, 
but  also  —  a  still  harder  thing  —  to  overthrow  in  theory  and 
practice  the  metrical  system  which  had  been  built  upon  this  pro- 
nunciation. If  Meyer  reversed  his  theory  and  said  that  the  old 
quantitative  forms  were  fitted  up  with  accented  and  unaccented 
syllables ,  it  would  impress  us  as  presenting  a  more  plausible 
historical  development.  But  even  then,  like  Huemer's  theory  of 
the  transformation  of  verse-forms,  it  could  explain  the  phenomena 
only  in  certain  cases,  —  which  of  course  amounts  to  no  explana- 
tion at  all. 

We  found  that  the  accentual  theories  had  to  he  rejected  in 
the  case  of  verse,  because  in  some  verse-forms  no  accentual  de- 
velopment took  place  from  quantitative  to  rhythmical  poetry,  and 
because  in  others,  where  it  did  take  place  as  in  the  iambic  and 
trochaic  metres ,  it  sometimes  affected  the  whole  verse  and  some- 
times only  the  end  of  it.  If  we  attempt  to  explain  the  transfor- 
mation of  the  rhetorical  clausula  by  the  theory  of  accentual  pro- 
minence, we  meet  difficulties  of  a  similar  kind. 

Three  forms  of  the   clausula  had   become   all   but   universal, 

1.  _vj ^;  2.  — u u  — ;  3.  — u  —  ii  (or  in  its  fuller  form  —  u 

u  —  ^).     With  the  exception  of  the   third,  these   forms  were 

freely  modified  and  varied  by  the  resolution  of  the  long  syllables. 
As  in  poetry  however,  this  occurred  more  and  more  rarely  as 
time  went  on,  and  by  the  fifth  century  resolution  seems  to  have 
been  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  penultimate  syllable  of  clau- 
sula no.  1. 

A  further  liberty  which  the  first  and  second  forms  had  from 
the  beginning,  was  that  the  syllable  between  the  first  two  longs 
might  itself  be  long. 

The  most  common  form  of  no.  3  in  the  earlier  time  (Cicero, 
Seneca,  Pliny)  was  _  u  _  ii.  About  the  second  and  third  centuries 
A.  D.  a  cretic  developed  before  this  ending,  but  it  did  not  attain 
a  fixed  character,  as  either  of  its  two  long  syllables,  or  even 
both  of  them,  might  at  any  time  be  replaced  by  short  syllables 
(cf.  Meyer's  article  just  referred  to).  This  lengthened  form  of 
no.  3  (^^  —  —  ^  —  ^)  gradually  displaced  the  older ,  simple  form, 
though   the  latter  does  not  entirely  disappear. 

Accordingly,  the  forms  of  the  quantitative  clausula  with  which 
we   have  to  deal  at   the  beginning  of   the   rhythmical  period  are 


^    85    -- 

1,    _£.~  —  ^SUd.^  , 

2.  ^(j  _-t.vjii, 

Of  the  quantitative  clausulae  as  they  existed  at  the   beginning  of 
the  fifth   century,   there   are,   as  Meyer  explains,   six   rhythmical 
representatives : 
Three  of  no.  1 : 

a.    r(j  r>j  \  r\j  r^  r^  ;    b.    rij  ^  r^  \  r^  r\J  ]    C.    rOr\^|(-vrvrv  r^. 
Two    of  no,    2:    a.    rOrC'Irv^rGur^;    b.    rOurv|rC»u  rv. 
One    of  no.    3 :    rij  \j  r\j  \   r^  r>j  r>j  r\j. 

An  examination  of  the  writers  whom  Meyer  classes  as  rhyth- 
mical —  Sedulius,  Ennodius,  Fortunatus  —  shows  that  of  these 
six  forms  only  three,  la,  2a  and  3,  are  found  in  abundance, 
while  the  other  three  (with  the  exception  of  1  c,  which  is  rather 
common  in  Ennodius)  occur  only  in  a  few  scattering  instances,  as 
do    also    several    forms    not    mentioned    by    Meyer,    for    instance 

rsj  r>J  I   rO  r\j  ,     r\j  r^j  |   rO  u  rv/  ,      rO  rv  I   i^  rO  rv  u  no    &C.  i  QC     lact 

then    is    that    only   one    of    the   possible    rhythmical   varieties  of 

each  of  the   three   original  quantitative  types  is  found  commonly 

employed  in  the  time  of  the    transition   from    the  quantitative  to 

the  rhythmical  character.     A  count  from  each  of  the  three  authors 

gives  these  results: 

Sedulius  Ennodius  Fortunatus 

1  a.    rO  rv  I  r^  rO  r^  81  37  0» 

1   1  ■»  I      /  ry/'-t times "dicoiis"before\    o  ,.    .,    ,,,„-,.>  Q 

lb.    rvur^lrvjr^  7(         a  quotation         )   ^  <-^'°^^    ^"'  ^  ^ 

1  C.    rCi  rvi   I   rvj  r\j  r^u  r\j                  4  24  o 

2a,.    r^rsj\r\jr(j^r<o          '61  55  34 

2b.    i^ur^lrOurv                      0  0  0 

3.     rsjur\j\r>jror^r>j            68  18  80 

rO  rv  I   rO  rv                                1  0  1 

r^  u  r>j  \  r\j  rsj  r>j                      1  0  3 

rOr>^|rC/urv                            0  2  0 

rOurv;|'"vrOurv                  1  1  0 

r^r\j\r\jrsjJ^^jrsj               0  8  0 

r\jr\j\r\jrun>j^^r>j            0  1  0 

^urv|o>^rvrv^r\^l  0  2 

It  is  strange  that  the  words  of  his  former  polemic  against 
the  accentual  theory  (Abh.  d.  bayr.  Akad.  XVII,  p.  9)  did  not 
occur  to  Meyer  in  this  connection:  „Dass  aber  wirklich  Virgil, 
Ovid  und  ihre  Nachfolger  im  Hexameterschluss  nicht  Ueberein- 
stimmung  der  Wort-  und  Versaccente  erstrebten,  geht  daraus 
hervor,  dass  sie  auch  SchlUsse  wie  ,res  repararej  Tyndaridarum  j 


—    86    — 

armamentis',  obwohl  hier  der  Wortaccent  treffllch  gewahrt  wurde, 
dennoch  nicht  minder  gemieden  haben  als  jene  , aquae  mons'.  Nur 
rhetorische  Grlinde  waren  es  also,  um  derentwillen  erst  diese 
feinen  Dichter  die  Regel  ausbildeten,  der  Hexameter  solle  weder 
mit  einem  einsilbigen  noch  mit  einem  vier-  oder  mebrsilbigen  Worte 
schliessen'^  The  conditions  in  the  two  cases  —  the  hexameter-ending 
and  the  rhetorical  clausula  —  are  identical,  with  the  exception  that 
it  can  not  have  been  "rhetorical  grounds"  which  caused  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  endings  —  u  —  |  —  .y.  and  —  u  —  |  —u^  in  prose, 
since  they  are,  besides  being  accentually  unobjectionable,  at  least 
as  well  balanced  as  the  endings  which  were  preserved. 

If  we  look  at  the  problem  from  the  quantitative  side,  we 
find  that  the  disappearance  of  the  two  varieties  of  clausula  just 
mentioned  was  a  gradual  one.  In  writers  of  the  fourth  century 
like  Ausonius ,  Symmachus  and  Sulpicius  Severus ,  whose  lapses 
from  correct  quantity  are  surely  rare  enough  to  entitle  their 
endings  to  he  called  quantitative,  the  two  varieties  mentioned  are 
proportionally  very  much  less  numerous  than  in  the  earlier  writers. 
Of  the  writers  of  the  fourth  century,  Ammianus  Marcellinus 
alone  stands  near  the  older  practice. 

and  and 


21 
31 
21 
12 
17 
31 
8 
18 
9 

10 
3 
1 
5 

1)  Only  the  endings  before  the  heavy  pauses  were  couuted.  The  endings 
—  <-<  I  —  1  —  —  and  —  ^1  —  1  —  ^  ~  which  may  belong  to  either  column,  were 
omitted.  The  figures  for  Cyprian  were  taken  from  the  article  of  Meyer.  The 
numbers  of  the  second  column  must  of  course  be  taken  in  their  relation  to  those 
of  the  first  column,  from  ten  to  twenty  pages  from  each  author  being  included  in 
the  count. 


Cicero  ^) 

67 

Seneca 

65 

Pliny 

35 

Minucius  Felix 

59 

Cyprian 

90 

Firmicus  Maternus 

66 

Ausonius 

75 

Ammianus  Marcellinus 

44 

Symmachus 

90 

Sulpicius  Severus 

80 

Sedulius 

93 

Ennodius 

97 

Fortunatus 

88 

-    87     — 

The  phenomena  which  we  have  here  are  exactly  parallel  with 
those  in  iambic  and  trochaic  verse.  There  also  the  accentual  de- 
velopment had  made  great  progress  by  the  year  400,  though  the 
rules  of  quantity  were,  all  in  all,  strictly  observed;  there  as  here, 
by  the  time  of  Sedulius  the  transformation  had  practically  reached 
its  end.  The  cause  of  the  transformation  was  the  same  in  prose 
as  in  poetry  (cf.  p.  52  ff.).  If  we  allow  the  unstable  final  syllable  of 
the  word  to  stand  in  those  places  where  it  was  not  necessary  to 
distinguish  between  long  and  short,  and  where  it  would  naturally 
be  placed  in  the  attempt  to  maintain  the  correct  quantity,  then 
we  shall  have,  in  each  of  the  three  types  of  the  quantitative 
clausula,  those  particular  varieties  which  we  find  continued  in  the 
early  rhythmical  period,  the  accent  in  each  case  coinciding  with 
the  ictus: 

a     !_/    I    _a_   \j_ 

a     \j_   I    _a_  ^  \j^ 

a  , 

Somewhat  later ,  when  an  eiFort  to  preserve  the  quantity 
ceased  to  he  made,  a  restriction  to  these  three  forms  was  of 
course  no  longer  necessary,  and  we  find  a  period  of  several  cen- 
turies beginning  about  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great,  when  they 
were  not  so  strictly  and  exclusively  used.  Finally  they  were 
restored  to  their  former  supremacy  in  the  rhythmical  form  by 
the  rules  of  the  dictatores  in  the  11th  and  12  th  centuries. 

At  what  time  the  coincidence  between  accent  and  ictus  began 
to  he  consciously  felt  as  the  structural  principle  in  verse  and 
prose,  is  a  question  into  which  we  need  not  here  enter.  Only  of 
this  we  may  be  quite  certain,  that  it  was  not  before  but  after 
the  beginning  of  the  "rhythmical"  practice. 


I    I 


List  of  Tables: 


Appendix  II. 


A.  Cases  of  Resolution  (iambic  dimeter). 

B.  „        „   Elision  „  „ 

C.  „        „    Hiatus  „  „ 

D.  Total  words  beginning  in  theses  (except  the  first)  aad 

words  „  rj        n      with  a  vowel  (iambic 

dimeter). 

E.  Syllables  in  the  interior  undetermined  thesis  arranged 
according  to  their  location  in  the  word,  (iambic  di- 
meter). 

F.  The  Metrical  faults  in  arsis  according  to  their  location 
in  the  word  (iamb.  dim.). 


Iambic  Dimeter. 

A.  Ifletrical  --  date 
certain. 

A  1. 

Catalecta  (Virgil)  .     .     .    . 

Horace 

Martial 

Sec.  Cent.  Frag 

A  2. 

Ausonius ,     . 

Ambrosius 

Pxudentius 

Martianus  Capella .  .  .  . 
A  3. 

Sedulius 

Ter  hora  trina  volvitur  .     . 

lam  sexta  sensim  solvitur  . 

Hie  est  dies  verus  dei    .    . 

Ennodius  ....... 

Boethius 

Fortunatus 

Bede 


D.  Begin- 

E.  ' 

Syllables 

F.  Word  position 

0^ 
CO 

d 

ning  in 

in  undeter- 

of faulty  syllables 

> 

1 

CO 

the 

sis. 

mined  thesis. 

in  arsis. 

O 

03 

c 

g 

c 

(V 

35 

"* 

> 

o 

ce 

a 

"3 

to 

o3 

C9 

g 

3 

< 

CQ 

d 

o 

is 

'a 

J3 

a 

Si 

to 

ti 

a 

3 

C3 

•T3 

a 
o 

% 

20 

__ 

2 

6 

21 

6 

3,     5 

12 

203 

4 

33 

190 

33 

13 

120 

80 

31 

U 

1 

26 

7 

4 

15 

12 

38 

12 

11 

38 

10 

26 

12 

398 

54 

71 

357 

77 

34 

253 

111 

1 

1 

188 

2 

7 

1 

189 

15 

24 

130 

34 

2 

1 

400 

23 

64 

363 

84 

44 

265 

91 

28 

13 

1 

27 

92 

2 

81 

3 

14 

73 

5 

2 

32 

4 

28 

3 

4 

23 

5 

36 

2 

1 

23 

6 

7 

29 

1 

32 

1 

5 

44 

3 

4 

14 

14 

160 

8 

116 

15 

14 

134 

12 

1 

39 

1 

1 

25 

3 

1 

27 

11 

124 

1 

8 

99 

18 

23 

96 

5 

3 

1 

225 

14 

195 

32 

34 

183 

8 

1 

89 


A  4. 

Fratrcs  .ilacri  (Taul.  Diai'on) 
0  Petro  pi'tra  ('cclcsiae  .  . 
Von  it  (lens  fact  us  lioino  .  . 
Cliristiis  re(leini)tor  plebinir. 
Laiulein  beati  (Wal.  Strabo) 
All  te  pulorum  (Floras  Liigd.) 
Ailest  (lies  voriis  dei  . 
Voiitosa  cum  desaeviat  .  . 
Aniande  praesul  optime   .     . 

B.    Metrical  —  date 
uncertain. 

B  1. 

Attributed  to  Gregory 
Apostolorum  supi)arem     . 
Apostolorum  passio      .     . 
lUuminans  altissimus   .     . 
Aeterne  rex  altissime  .     . 
Priraatis  aulae  caelicae     . 
Stephano    coronae  martjrnm 
Bellator  armis  inclitus 
Marline  confessor  dei  .     , 
Hymnum  sacra  novum  die 
Victor,  Nabor,  P'elix  pii  . 
Amore  Cliristi  nobilis  .     . 
Festum  beati  martyris 
Festum  beati  martyris 
Aeteraus  orbis  conditor    . 
Cliristi  caterva  clamilat    . 
luluxit  orbi  iam  dies   . 
Veni  creator  optime     .     . 
Caeli  deus  sauctissime 
Plasmator  hominis,  deus  . 
Verbum  supernum  prodiens 
lesus  refulsit  omnium  . 
Lucis  creator  optime   .     . 
Chorus  novae  lerusalem  . 
Magnae  deus  potentiae     . 
Agnoscat  omne  saeculum 
In  matutinis  surgimus  .     . 
Grates  tibi  lesu  novas 
Nunc  saucte  uobis  spiritus 
Rector  poteus,  verax  deus 
Rerum  deus  teuax  vigor  . 
Aeterua  caeli  gloria     .     . 
Aurora  iam  spargit  polum 
Aguis  beatae  virginis  .     . 
B  2. 
Diem  sacrati  hominis  .     . 
Anni  recurso  tempore  .     . 
Vox  clara  ecce  intonat    . 


D.  Begin- 
ning in 
tiiesis. 


E.  Syllables 
in  undeter- 
mined thesis. 


F.  Word  position 

of  faulty  syllables 

ill  arsis. 


2M 

pyj 
82 
28 
24 
20 
32 
24 
2(1 
'd-I 


o2 

i2r. 

■A2 
o2 
24 
IG 
12 
1( 
82 
IG 
20 
IG 
82 
15 
32 
8 


178 
35 
34 
38 
28 
18 
14 
25 
22 
18 
29 
2G 
22 
28 

115 
28 
27 
11 
15 
IH 

12 
85 
14 
17 
13 
24 

y 

34 
5 
8 
8 

14 
9 

86 

16 
13 
10 


193 
20 
20 
13 
21 
16 
14 
22 
16 
10 
23 
18 
24 
25 
77 
24 
26 
22 
12 
7 
14 
2(1 
13 
13 
12 
28 
12 
21 
7 
5 
5 
14 
9 
17 

16 
19 
15 


14 


-    90 


Fortem  fidelera  militem 
Uiiam  duorum  gloriam 
lam  meta  uoctis  transiit 
Decus  sacrati  nominis 
Cousors  paterni  luniinis 
In  Trinitatis  unitas 
Cibis  rcsumptis  congruis 
Ternis  ter  horis  numerus 
lesu  corona  celsior  .     . 
Tu  Christ e,  nostrum  gaudium 
Te,  lucis  auctor,  personant 
Beata  nobis  gaudia      .     . 
Ad  Katberinae  nuptias     . 
Votiva  cunctis  orbita   .     . 
In  laude  regis  omnium 
Rex  gloriose  martyrum    . 
Fit  porta  Christi  pervia  . 
0  lux  beata,  trinitas    .     . 
lesu  quadragenariae     .     . 
lam  lucis  orto  sidere  .     . 
lesu,  salvator  saeculi   .     . 
Quem  terra,  pontus,  aetbera 
Somno  refectis  artnbus 
Summae  Deus  clementiae 
Te  lucis  ante  terminum 
Rerum  creator  optima 
Nox  atra  rerum  contegit 
Dei  fide,  qua  vivimus  . 
lam  cursus  borae  sextae 
Convexa  solis  orbita    . 
Deus  tuorum  militum  . 
lesu  corona  virginum  . 

C  Uniiietrical  Theses. 

Deus  qui  certis  legibus 
Aeternae  lucis  conditor    . 
Fulgentis  auctor  aetheris 
Lucis  largitor  splendide  . 
Certum  tenentes  ordinem 
Dicamus  laudes  domino    . 
Perfectura  trinum  numerum 
Tempus  noctis  surgentibus 
lam  Christus  astra  ascenderat 
Ignis  creator  igneus. 

D.    Rliythinical- 
nndeVeloped. 

D  1. 

Bis  teruas  boras  explicans  . 
Rex  aeterne  domine    .     .     . 


D.  Begin- 

E, Syllables 

F.  Word  position 

CO 

d 

ning  in 

in  undeter- 

of faulty  syllables 

o 
u 

a 

o 

o 

< 

a 
o 

03 

to 

thesis. 

mined  thesis. 

in  arsis. 

o 

o 

> 

is 

'3 

c 

O 

"5 

'■a 

-a 
a 

a 

a 

5 

o 

V 

a 
o 
u 

3 

a 

o 

OS 

I. 

Oj 

'C3 

c 

-d 

c 
o 

32 

1 

1 

20 

2 

4 

28 

28 

6 

'24 

7 

6 

22 

12 

1 

7 

12 

2U 

1 

16 

2 

4 

16 

V2 

6 

4 

8 

2(J 

2 

13 

3 

17 

12 

1 

14 

2 

1 

11 

12 

12 

3 

9 

2 

82 

4 

16 

6 

26 

12 

8 

1 

12 

2-4 

1 

1 

16 

3 

6 

18 

24 

22 

2 

7 

17 

2 

24 

1 

14 

1 

4 

20 

1 

ir. 

9 

1 

1 

15 

1 

20 

1 

11 

1 

3 

17 

3 

1 

12 

1 

4 

6 

6 

1 

12 

1 

10 

3 

2 

10 

1 

8 

2 

8 

20 

2 

12 

2 

10 

10 

1 

1 

l(i 

14 

1 

6 

10 

IG 

12 

3 

3 

13 

2 

2 

32 

1 

2 

17 

3 

32 

1 

16 

13 

2 

6 

10 

1 

Ki 

3 

10 

3 

13 

8 

8 

3 

5 

1 

10 

10 

2 

14 

1 

IG 

6 

2 

14 

12 

10 

1 

2 

10 

1 

1 

20 

1 

9 

1 

19 

2 

16 

9 

1 

15 

32 

4 

19 

1 

5 

27 

1 

1 

16 

5 

1 

16 

20 

17 

3 

1 

19 

24 

19 

2 

1 

23 

3 

20 

1 

21 

1 

2 

17 

1 

2 

32 

20 

1 

4 

2b 

1 

1 

1 

12 

1 

8 

1 

4 

8 

1 

2 

12 

3 

10 

2 

3 

9 

1 

1 

12 

11 

2 

2 

10 

2 

16 

1 

15 

1 

6 

9 

1 

3 

32 

1 

2 

18 

3 

8 

22 

2 

32 

3 

1 

28 

2 

2 

28 

2 

1 

1 

3^ 

■» 

2 

1 

31' 

^     & 

9 

15 

8 

4 

13 

64 

3 

1 

14 

44 

.  8 

23 

39 

2 

9 

22 

1 

-     91 


Optatus  votis  omnium  .     . 
lam  Cbriste,  sol  iustitiae 
Ad  ceuam  agiii  provitli    . 
Ilegi  polorum  tlebitos  .     . 
Rex  Christe,  Martini  decus 
Sacri  triiimpbale  tui    .     . 
Adest  dies  sauctissima 
A  sol  is  ortns  cardine  .     . 
Deus,  qui  caeli  lumen  es  . 
Deus  pater  ingenite     .     . 
Mediae  noctis  tempus  est 
Deus  aeterni  luminis    .     . 
Diei  luce  reddita     .     .     . 
Deus  qui  claro  lumine 
Christe  redemptor  gentium 
Mysterium  ecclesiae     .     . 
Stephano  primo  martyri  . 
Post  matutinas  laudes.     . 
D  2. 
Christe  qui  lux    es  et  dies 
Aurora  lucis  rutilat      .     . 
Nunc  tibi,  virgo  virginum 
Magni  palmam  certaminis 
0  rex,  0  rector  regminis . 
Couditor  alme  siderum     . 
Mysteriorum  signifer    .     . 
lesu  nostra  redemptio  .     . 
Hymuum  dicamus  domino 
Magno  salutis  gaudio  .     . 
lam  ter  quaternis  trabitur 
lam  lucis  splendor  rutilat 
Meridie  orandum  est    .     . 


£.   Rhythmical- 
developed. 


Petrus  Damiani  .  .  . 
Anselm  of  Canterbury . 
Gallus  et  Vulpes  .  . 
Sacerdos  et  Lupus  .  . 
Beruhard  of  Clairvaux 
Bonaventura  .  .  .  . 
Thomas  Aquinas .     .     . 


M 

D.  Begin- 

E.  Syllables  (F.Word  position 

a> 

d 

nin 

%  in 

in  unde 

ter- 

of  faulty  syllables 

u 

> 

o 

H 
O 

3 

tiiesis. 

mined  tiiesis. 

in  arsis. 

O 
4J 

o5 

5 

5 

o 

"rt 

u 

O) 

1 

rt 

c 

CO 

a 
a> 
o 
o 
cs 

a 

< 

32 

'J) 

o 

!2 

1    a 

5 

a 

a 

V 

L, 

^ 

0) 

-53 

O 
O 

OJ 

OJ 

>'^ 

a 

^ 

t-i 

.2 

§ 

oj 

^ 

32 

2 

1 

22 

2 

5 

24 

3 

7 

3 

20 

1 

19 

2 

5 

14 

1 

1 

8 

24 

6 

17 

4 

6 

16 

2 

4 

8 

o2 

1 

10 

28 

8 

8 

23 

1 

5 

6 

5 

8(1 

2 

44 

8 

8 

24 

4 

4 

9 

1 

32 

4 

27 

4 

5 

22 

5 

3 

5 

3 

4 

1 

20 

2 

10 

4 

15 

1 

5 

5(i 

6 

2 

38 

10 

7 

48 

1 

5 

14 

2 

1 

40 

2 

3 

33 

4 

2 

31 

4 

2 

6 

20 

2 

9 

2 

4 

14 

2 

2 

] 

4 

52 

2 

5 

41 

7 

7 

41 

4 

9 

2 

9 

3 

2 

24 

1 

5 

34 

9 

6 

6 

12 

3 

2 

4 

36 

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1 

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21 

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2 

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120 

34 

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232 

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8 

288 

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58 

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Kf 


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'n 


UC  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


